Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, <fyc. 309 



On the whole, however, the evidences appear to me to favour the con- 

 clusion that Corraac was really a bishop, as well as king, of Munster; and par- 

 ticularly when we take into consideration the facts, that it was a usual cir- 

 cumstance amongst the Munster princes to step from the church to the throne, 

 as in the case of the celebrated Cormac Mac Cullenan, and his successor, 

 Flahertach Mac Inmuinen ; that we have evidence in the old Annals of 

 Innisfallen, or Munster, that both Cormac's father and grandfather had been 

 comharbas, or successors, of St. Ailbhe in Emly, and that the former was also 

 king of the Eoganachts, or Desmond ; that Cormac was but a second son, 

 and succeeded to the throne on the fatal illness of his elder brother, Teige, 

 in 1106, and was therefore likely to have been previously provided for in 

 the Church, as his predecessors had been ; and lastly, that the church built at 

 Cashel by Cormac Saint Cormac, as Lynch styles him was always called 

 Temple Cormac, thus retaining the name of its individual founder, which no 

 church in Ireland, within my knowledge at least, ever did, when such founder 

 was not an ecclesiastic, and hence, as I conceive, the popular tradition which 

 has so long ascribed its erection to the royal bishop Cormac Mac Cullenan, 

 to disprove which I have been led into this somewhat tedious digression. 



As many of my readers may desire to see a representation of the crozier, 

 which has principally led to the preceding investigation, I annex an outline 

 of its head or crook, the only part which, from the durability of its material, 

 now remains, the staff having been of wood. This head is formed of cop- 

 per, and measures twelve inches in length, and five in the diameter of the 

 crook, or circular head. The crook, or upper portion of the crozier, repre- 

 sents a serpent, terminated by a double faced head. Its surface is covered 

 with a sunk lozenge carving, filled with a vitreous enamel of a blue colour, 

 and the intervening elevations of which are gilt, a design obviously intended to 

 represent the scales of the reptile. Within the curve is a human figure, stand- 

 ing, with one leg placed on the neck of the serpent, and the other on the back 

 of a double-faced wingless dragon, which he has pierced in the back with a 

 spear, which the dragon bites. This human figure is dressed in a simple tunic, 

 tied round the waist ; and the feet are covered Avith buskins, which extend 

 above the ankles. This figure had wings fastened to the shoulders and to a 

 central bar, which connects the figure with the circle ; but these wings have been 



