248 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



ment of a plate and boss surrounded by pierced zoomorphie ornament, which 

 is, however, so degraded in character as to be hardly recognizable as such. 1 

 There are two other silver brooches in the same collection in which the central 

 boss is retained, but the open-work terminal has been replaced by a closed 

 plate ornamented with dots. 



The brooch must also be compared with a series of silver brooches, of 

 which there are six in the Academy's collection, the best-known being the 

 celebrated example found at Ballyspellan, inscribed on the back in ogham 

 characters. In the usual form of this type the expanded terminals are 

 decorated with four bosses, with an edging of filigree work, joined together 

 by strap-work, the intervening panels being filled with zoomorphie patterns. 

 Fragments of such brooches have been found in the great hoard of silver objects 

 discovered at Cuerdale, Lancashire, dated by associated coins to the early 

 tenth century. 5 The Trinity College example differs in several particulars 

 from these brooches, but comparison will show that the types are related. It 

 is probably a little earlier than these, and may be provisionally placed in the 

 first half of the ninth century. 



The fourth brooch is made of bronze, and the terminals are fused together 

 so that it is of the nature of a ring-headed pin, and belongs to the type of 

 which the Tara brooch is the best-known example. The pin measures 

 5'6 inches and the ring 2'6 inches in diameter at the widest part. The 

 expanded portion is divided in the centre by an oblong setting, now empty, 

 with an oblong space filled with cross-hatched lines at each end. On 

 either side of this is a panel, with a diamond-shaped space in the centre filled 

 with cross-hatched lines, and having at its end a circular setting, one of which 

 still retains its filling of amber. An edging of degraded zoomorphie work 

 borders the plate on each side up to its junction with the ring (fig. 1, (lower), 

 p. 244). At the back in the centre of the plate is attached a small loop, 

 which is a common feature in this type of brooch. In the writer's opinion 

 the end of the ninth century may be suggested as a probable date for this 

 example. 



It may be added that the so-called " University Brooch " has undergone 

 an expert process of cleaning at the hands of Dr. Young with most excellent 

 results, and that all the four brooches have been arranged in a small desk-case, 

 where they can be well seen by any visitor to the Library. 



1 This brooch is figured by Salin, Die Altgermanische Thierornamentik, p. 334, fig. 715, 

 who remarks that certain portions of the animal forms in its ornamentation must be 

 ascribed to his Stile II (i.e., seventh century). 



2 Archaeological Journal, vol. iv, pp. 111-130 and pp. 189-199. 



