146 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS 



Military Architecture — Pagan Ireland. — Among the most 

 ancient stone forts in existence are Dun ^ngus and others in the 

 Island of Aran, and what is known now as Staignes in the County of 

 Kerry. The former is the more extensive, the latter in extraordi- 

 nary preservation for a ruin that Wilde mentions as having existed 

 for at least 2,000 years. I have not seen either, but an excellent 

 model of the Kerry fortress, composed of stones used in its con- 

 struction, enables one to form a clear idea of the structure. The 

 original is nearly circular, 114 feet in diameter, 13 feet thick at the 

 base, and a little more than 5 feet under the coping stone : 

 there are two chambers in the massive wall. A series of steps inside 

 the latter led to platforms for the defenders. It was built without 

 mortar or cement, in what is known as the Cyclopean style of 

 architecture. I am not at all surprised that the Dublin Antiquarian 

 remarks : — '' One is led from similarity in structure to the earliest 

 Pelasgian monuments of Greece to suppose an identity of people." 

 The stone fortresses like these are said to be the work of an early 

 colony called Fir-bolgs, Belgian Celts perhaps. The bardic chroni- 

 cles, our early annals, inform us they came from Greece originally, 

 that they were of Sythian descent. Is it not strange that the new 

 Aryan discovery of Max Miiller was known in Ireland more than a 

 thousand years ago ? The jests of a few English critics on the sub- 

 ject seem rather out of place. 



Stotie Habitations — Clochauns of Fir-bolgs are found chiefly in 

 the islands off the west coast of Ireland. Some are circular, dome- 

 shaped buildings, formed by the flags overlapping, (the principle of 

 the arch being apparently unknown), large enough to house several 

 families. Dr. Petrie supposes a few, at least in Aran, were erected as 

 monasteries and religious establishments in the sixth century. If his 

 opinion is correct they must have taken the monuments of the prim- 

 itive inhabitants as their models While admitting there is still 

 strong evidence that monastic communities were established in the 

 western islands long before the Norman invasion, I confess I am 

 disposed to think the early Christians may have, possibly from this 

 ancient, pastoral people, known to us as Fir-bolgs, Dumnonians, 

 etc., acquired the cells and Pelasgian remains subsequently con- 

 verted to the purposes of Christianity when this religion was sub- 

 stituted for Paganism. 



Sir Wm. Wilde states, the Celtic city of Fahan, near Ventry 



