Mr. W. R. Witpe’s Description of the Mias Tighearnain. cg 
and within this ring there is a small hollow cavity, covered over with a separate 
piece of copper, which contains within it some hard substance, believed (according 
to the popular traditions of the country) to be a relic of the Virgin. The carving 
on the circumference of this silver centre-piece resembles more closely the pat- 
terns on some of the gold ornaments of the pagan era than any that has yet been 
discovered on a Christian antiquity, and would of itself bring back the date of the 
manufacture of this shrine to a very remote period (see fig. 5). We do not find 
on this shrine any remains of the dog-figured ornament so common in the embla- 
zonry of the early manuscripts, and so frequently found among the tracery of 
shrines and croziers as to be almost emblematical of early Irish art. 
On the front of the shrine we find the settings, in silver, of two precious 
stones, but these appear to have been added in comparatively modern times, and 
were evidently offerings placed on it by those who believed they had derived 
benefit of some kind from it: a fragment of amber still remains in one of these, 
which is represented of the natural size at fig. 6. The edge of the shrine was 
bound with a narrow band of copper, which appears to have been renewed on 
several occasions, each addition exhibiting a different form of ornament, and at 
one period the whole was encircled with a rim of silver, only a very small portion 
of which now remains. Each arm of the cross was carved in a different manner, 
and on one of the arms may be traced the wivern, and also a portion of the 
head of a bird (fig. 3). On the reverse, or convex side, the cross is plain, and 
of copper, and is strengthened by an inner circular plate of the same material, 
which appears to have been added to give additional security to the whole; as 
seen in the annexed engraving (fig. 2). 
There are but few of the original rivets now remaining, most of the fasten- 
ings being either of modern brass or iron. There can be little doubt that this is 
one of the oldest shrines in Ireland, but its use is involved in more obscurity 
than some of those at present in the museum of the Academy; and its local name, 
Map Tisheannamn, “ St. Tiernan’s dish,” does not throw much light on its his- 
tory. This term is a corrupt translation of the original. Mas, though used 
occasionally to express a dish or platter, is rendered by the best Irish scholars an 
altar, or rather the Paten, and this is its true meaning in the oldest Irish manu- 
scripts. The original part, whichever it is, may have been the altar-plate, or Paten, 
of St. Tiernan, on which the chalice and the sacred elements were placed, or any 
VOL. XXI. c 
