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XVI. 



FOUE BROOCHES PRESERVED IX THE LIBRARY OF TRINITY 



COLLEGE, DUBLIN. 



By E. C. R. ARMSTRONG. 



Read Xotembeb. 30, 1914. Published Jaxuaet 29, 1915. 



Four interesting brooches are preserved with other antiquities in the Library 

 of Trinity College, Dublin, and inquiries from England concerning these 

 having reached the writer, he asked the Provost and Librarian for permission 

 to publish them. This was at once granted. The writer is under special 

 obligations to Mr. Alfred De Burgh, Assistant-Librarian, who took a most 

 kindly interest in the writing of this paper, and gave every facility for 

 examining and drawing the brooches. 1 



It is unfortunate that, except in one case, nothing appears to be known as 

 to the date when the brooches were acquired by the Library, or the localities 

 in which they were found. 



The exception is the thistle brooch, which is described in Collectanea de 

 Rebus Hibernicis, second edition, vol. i, p. 211, as " a silver instrument lately 

 turned up by the plough in a field near the cathedral of Cashel in the 

 county of Tipperary." An engraving of it is given on Plate I. It is also 

 mentioned in the first edition of the same work, which bears the date 1770, 

 so that the object must have been discovered before that year. Curiously 

 enough, this brooch is the only one of the four mentioned in the Book of 

 Trinity College, Dublin, where it is referred to as being in the same case as 

 the celebrated harp of Brian Boroimhe. The only other of the four which 

 appears to be known is the remarkable brooch which has a cresting round 

 the hoop. There is a sketch of this, as restored by the artist's imagination, in 

 the Illustrated Catalogue of Ancient Irish Art, issued by Messrs. Edmund 

 Johnson, Ltd. The illustration will be found on page 19, No. 42, and is 

 entitled the " University Brooch." 



As will be seen later, two of the brooches belong to well known types, and 



1 The penannular and annular brooch was a characteristic part of Irish costume 

 for some four centuries previous to the Anglo-Norman Invasion ; and the Brehon Laws 

 refer to a brooch as portion of the insignia of a chief. (Ancient Laws of Ireland, vol. iv, 

 p. 323. Translated by O'Donovan and O'Curry.) 



R.I. A. PEOC, VOL. XXXII, SECT. C. [38] 



