Kinahan — On Irish Metal Mining. 259 



ceased, during the internal wars before and after the advent of 

 Strongbow and his mercenary companions. The statements of 

 these writers as to early mining cannot, therefore, be relied on, 

 although they may be quoted in reference to works that were in 

 existence when they wrote. 



In the early times gold and silver were recognized productions, 

 especially gold, as pointed out in the Paper by the late Grerrard A. 

 Kinahan, On the mode of Occurrence and Winning of Gold in Ire- 

 land (Proc, R. D. S., vol. in., pt. v.). The English, prior to 1640, 

 discovered and worked three silver-lead-ore veins in Antrim, Sligo, 

 and Tipperary. The site of the mine in Antrim is now unknown, 

 but probably it was somewhere in the Ballycastle Metamorphic 

 rocks district. The Sligo mine was in Coney Island, but it also 

 appears to be now unknown, or to be given a different name ; 

 while that in Tipperary was the Silvermines near Nenagh. The 

 last, although claimed as an English discovery, had previously 

 been worked by the Irish. 



Boate (16) would have us believe that the English were the first 

 to smelt and work iron. Chicester, however, in his report (1609), 

 states he found, in Ulster, smiths at work, making steel out of the 

 native iron, which they wrought much more easily than it could 

 be made in England. The English and Scotch however, who 

 came over after his report, developed an extensive trade ; which 

 seems to have been at its maximum at the time of the rising in 

 1641. 



The Iron- works were of different kinds : some Iron-masters had 

 furnaces and mills; others, especially in Ulster, smelted the iron in 

 bloonieries at the places where the timber was most plenty; while 

 others had their furnaces near the coast of Ulster, Connaught, and 

 Munster, importing most of the ore from England and Scotland. 

 The principal Iron-masters at this time, whose names are recorded, 

 were — Lord Cork, furnaces, mills, and mines in divers places iu 

 Munster; Wandsworth (Wandesford), furnaces, mills, foundry, 

 and mines, Carlow and Kilkenny ; Sir Charles Coot (Coote), mines 

 and works, Queen'' s Count y, Leitrim, andHoscommon ; Lord London- 

 derry, mines and works, Queen's County ; Lord Ely and Piggot, 1 



1 Piggot's works may have been in the Queen's County. — (See description, King's 

 County, page 285). 



T 2 



