11 
part of the wall is the first subject, representing three crowned 
skeletons, and three crowned figures draped, of whom two 
bear hawks in their hands, and the third holds a naked sword. 
On the lower part, to the left, is a figure of the Almighty, 
represented, as was then usual, in the form of an aged man, 
with flowing beard; on his breast a dove and large-sized cru- 
cifixion ; of this, however, slight traces only now remain; the 
dove and crucifixion have been destroyed, probably by the 
Cromwellians or Puritans, to whom this mode of representing 
the Deity was peculiarly offensive. The plaster has in fact 
been entirely removed from the centre of the figure; an 
hence some have supposed that it represented not the Al- 
- mighty, but a Brehon, holding in his left hand a book. 
What was taken for a book, however, is probably the re- 
mains of the left arm of the cross, and Dr. Todd was of opi- 
nion that the former is by far the more natural interpretation 
of the picture. On the right hand of this figure is an angel 
holding the balance of judgment, and on his left are two 
archers shooting at a naked figure, who stands between them, 
- tied to a tree, and in whose body several other arrows are 
sticking, an evident representation of the martyrdom of St. 
Sebastian. 
It has been objected that St. Sebastian does not appear 
to have been known in Ireland, as his name does not occur in 
the martyrology of the Four Masters, which was compiled by 
those eminent scholars from all the then extant sources of 
Irish Hagiology. And hence it is inferred that the execution 
represented in the fresco is not what it would appear at first 
sight to be, but an event of Irish history, the death, namely, 
of the hostages of Dermot Mac Murchadha, who were executed 
on the bridge of Athlone by Rory O’Conor, King of Ireland, 
a.p. 1170. To this conjecture, however, which was first 
suggested by Ledwich, and has been lately adopted by a much 
higher authority, there are serious objections. In the first 
