43 



From a consideration of all these circumstances, Mr. Smith 

 ventured to express an opinion that the remains found at Lame, 

 as well as those at Dunshaughlin, are to be referred to that re- 

 mote period when the use of brass or bronze was superseded 

 by iron and steel in the manufacture of offensive weapons, while 

 it was yet retained in the lighter works of ornament. From 

 the invariable shortness of the Dunshaughlin swords, he was 

 disposed to infer, that the remains there discovered were of a 

 period not far removed from the age of the bronze swords of 

 similar length, still not unfrequently found in Ireland ; while 

 he suggested, that the articles to which the present paper re- 

 ferred might be considered as furnishing a closely following, 

 though later link in the chain. 



The sword bears no slight resemblance to one which has 

 been engraved in Walker's Essay on the Costume and Arms 

 of the Ancient Irish, and which, attributing it to the Knights 

 Templars, he states to have been found about forty years 

 before, near the site of the old priory of Kilmainham. It 

 was accordingly objected, that the weapons found at Larne 

 belonged to some one of that Order, and were therefore of a 

 much later date than that assigned to them as above men- 

 tioned. In reply to this, Mr. Smith urged the remarkable 

 circumstance of the bronze pin, of unquestionable antiquity, 

 having been found in connexion with the sword, a fact of 

 which he was able to give the most decisive assurance, upon 

 the testimony of the overseer of the works, a person of strict- 

 est integrity, and who, not having any antiquarian predilec- 

 tions, could not be aware of the force or nature of the evi- 

 dence he was furnishing. It was also to be recollected, that 

 long antecedent to the establishment of the priory of Knights 

 Templars by Richard Earl Strongbow, in 1174, a monastic 

 institution had been founded there by St. Magnen, from 

 whom Kilmainham (which in many ancient documents is writ- 

 ten Kilmaynan) took its name so early as the sixth or se- 

 venth century of our era; and that the adjoining burial 



