Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 121 



PART II. 



TRUE ORIGIN AND USES OF THE ROUND TOWERS. 



SECTION I. 

 INTRODUCTION. 



IN the preceding part of this Inquiry I have endeavoured to remove the too 

 prevalent existing prejudices of my countrymen in favour of theories respect- 

 ing the origin and uses of the Round Towers, which I deem erroneous, by a 

 dispassionate examination of the evidences which have been adduced to sup- 

 port them ; and to the calm inquirer after truth, who may have accompanied 

 me through that rather tedious preliminary investigation, I trust I have sub- 

 mitted such evidences as will prepare his mind for an unbiassed examination of 

 the proofs I have now to tender, in support of the conclusions which I hope to 

 establish. 



That my countrymen should be so generally inclined to believe in hypotheses 

 I allude particularly to those referring the Towers to a pagan origin on such 

 evidences, will probably excite surprise in the minds of the learned of other coun- 

 tries, among whom a more philosophical spirit has been directed to subjects of 

 historical and antiquarian inquiry ; but such surprise must be materially dimi- 

 nished, when it is recollected that sound antiquarian investigation, even in the 

 wealthier sister islands, is but of recent growth, and that, from various causes 

 unnecessary to point out, it has naturally followed but slowly in Ireland. I may 

 add too, as a fact of great importance, that the little that has been hitherto 

 written by men of acknowledged judgment and learning, on the subject of Irish 

 architectural remains, has been far more calculated to mislead than guide the 

 mind on this subject. What, I may ask, could be expected but the wildest 

 speculation, when Sir James Ware, the first and most judicious of all the writers 

 who have treated of Irish antiquities, and whose work still ranks as our text- 

 book for information on such subjects, tells us, with all the weight of authority 

 due to his learning and love of truth, that the Irish did not begin to build with 



VOL. xx. B 



