20 Mr. Petrie on the Domnach-Airgid. 



manifest that the use of the box as a reliquary was not its original intention. The 

 natural inference therefore is, that it contained a manuscript which had belonged 

 to St. Patrick ; and as a manuscript copy of the Gospels, apparently of that early 

 age, is found within it, there is every reason to believe it to be that identical one 

 for which the box was originally made, and which the Irish apostle probably 

 brought with him on his mission into this country. It is indeed, not merely 

 possible, but even probable, that the existence of this manuscript was unknown 

 to the Monkish biographers of St. Patrick and St. Mac-earthen, who speak of the 

 box as a scrinium or reliquary only. The outer cover was evidently not made to 

 open ; and some, at least, of the relics attached to it were not introduced into Ire- 

 land before the twelfth century. It will be remembered also that no superstition 

 was and is more common in connexion with the ancient cumdachs than the dread 

 of their being opened. 



These conclusions will, I think, be strengthened considerably by the facts, 

 that the word Domnach, as applied either to a church, as usual, or to a reliquary, 

 as in this instance, is only to be found in our histories in connexion with St. Pa- 

 trick's time ; and, that in the latter sense — its application to a reliquary — it 

 only once occurs in all our ancient authorities, namely, in the single reference to 

 the gift to St. Mac-Carthen ; no other reliquary in Ireland, as far as can be ascer- 

 tained, having ever been known by that appellation. And it should also be 

 observed, that all the ancient reliques preserved in Ireland, whether bells, books, 

 croziers, or other remains, have invariably, and without any single exception, 

 been preserved and venerated only as appertaining to the original founders of 

 the churches to which they belonged. 



Since the preceding pages were written, the Domnach has become the pro- 

 perty of the Hon. Henry R. Westenra, at a cost of three hundred pounds. That 

 truly patriotic gentleman immediately on his becoming the possessor of this inte- 

 resting monument of the Insula Sacra, honored me with a request that I would 

 communicate to the Academy and to the University, that, as his only object in 

 becoming its purchaser was that it might not pass out of Ireland, he would be at 

 all times ready to surrender it to either of these national institutions, as a proper 

 depository for its preservation, at a loss of a portion of the sum which it cost him. 

 A liberality so enlightened will, I have no doubt, be admired and honored. 



