[68 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS 



Norman monarch. I feel inclined to question if it can be proved to 

 be the usual costume of a Provincial King of the time stated. 



The dress of the higher order of the native Irish of the fifteenth 

 century, save the conical cap of sheepskin, which fell to pieces when 

 exposed to the air, is well displayed by a photograph taken from the 

 garments themselves. The costume of an Irish chief of the century 

 succeeding is supposed to be represented on a chimney-piece in the 

 old castle of Dunkerron, near Kenmare ; the O'SuUivan More wears 

 a tunic belted at the waist, his cap a Glengarry bonnet with a twisted 

 border and feather. The late W. Smith O'Brien obtained a cap of 

 woven texture; it was found in a Kerry bog some -ten feet deep, at 

 the foot of a large tree ; the gold band which was attached is absent 

 now, and the present colour is probably due to the bog's tanning 

 process. A woman's dress of woollen cloth, found in Shinrone bog, 

 is in extraordinary preservation, and from its singular shape seems 

 to have been lying there for about 500 years. 



The curious fresco on the wall of Knockmay, Tuam, painted by 

 O'Eddichan for O'Kelly, A. D. 1400, represents the dress of an Irish 

 archer of the period ; one is bare-headed, the other wears the coni- 

 cal Phrygian cap, a short green tunic and braccse, fitting closely to 

 the figure ; the arrows carried in the belt loose. 



The costume of Manus O'Donnell, A. D. 1542, before he sur- 

 rendered his native title for the Earldom of Tyconnel, is described 

 by the Lord Deputy Sentleger in a State paper yet existing : — " It 

 consisted of a coat of crimson velvet, with twenty or thirty pairs of 

 golden aiglets ; over that a great double cloak of crimson satin bor- 

 dered with black velvet, and in his bonnet a feather set full of 

 aiglets of gold, so he was more richly dressed than any other Irish- 

 man." 



In the great battle of Clontarf, fought on Good Friday, A. D. 

 1014, we have not only the scalds of the Scandinavian poets of 

 the time, acknowledging their defeat, but such records as remain un- 

 questioned, preserved by our monkish historians as well. No un- 

 prejudiced person can deny that both bear the impress of truth. The 

 ringed andscaled mail of the Northern Vikings is accurately described. 

 The Irish leader, Prince Murrough, is called Kerthialfadr in 

 the Danish accounts, which precisely agrees with that recorded in 

 " the four masters," respecting his hewing his way to the Ostmen's 

 standard, and cutting down two bearers in succession with his battle 



