114 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



attributes it to the excellence of the Dane's corselets, and " their hard, strong, 

 valiant swords ; ' and their well-rivetted long spears " ; besides their bravery 

 and their valour. 



We next come to the spear-heads found at Island-bridge. In 

 Sir William Wilde's paper six are mentioned as having been found. 

 These are entered in the new Eegistry, and have been identified. 

 Mr. Wakeman labelled four more spear-heads as having been found at 

 Island-bridge ; and one more is mentioned in the old Eegistry, making 

 eleven spear-heads in all, which appear to have come in at diflerent 

 times. They aie numbered as follows : — 



Wk. 1. Measures 14i inches in length. 



Wk. 2. II. 2.'.G."i. Pleasures 12 inches in length. 

 ^^'k. .!. Measures IH inches in length. 



Wk. 4. li. 2366. Measures lOJ inches in length. 



Wk. 5. R. 2372. Measures 16 inches in length. 



Wk. 0. 11. 2.'.7I. Measures 19^ inches in lengtli. (Fig. 4.) 



Wk. 7. It. 2373. Measures 11 inclies in lengtli. (Fig. 4.) 



Wk. 8. K. 2360. Measures 14 inches in length. 



Wk. 10. D. 305. Measures 15J inches in length. 



Wk. 24. D. 303. Measures 8J inches in lengtli. 



D. 368. Measures IGJ inches in length. 



Three s^icar-heads and a portion of the socket of a spear-liead are 

 labelled as found in the cutting of the Great Southern and Western Railway 



' The DAtiTC avorda {ound in crannogt niid throiiglioiit the country arc small and liglit (tig. 3), 

 and must hare boon of little pfTert agninat the great aworda of the first-comers from the north until the 

 arniB were in time more equalized. The origin of the type of s<irae of the swords which broaden to a 

 trianguliir point baa not yet been discovered. There are many of Dirso light swords in Ireland which 



i^MESSiS- 



(I) 



(3) 



Fio. 3.— Irish Svorda (1). 



No. 1 found near Toome Bridge. 



No. 2 found in Ireland, exact locality unrecorded. 



Xo. 3 found in Dunahanghlin Crannog. 



oppear to be contt-mpomry with the other crannog swnrda. As showing how liltle things were 

 underatood in the time the Island-bridge find was described, it may be mentioned that Ur. Todd, in 

 a note in hia introduction to the "War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill," says that "The Irish swords 

 of the period were abort, and of bronze The Danish aworJa were long, and of alicl." lion had 

 long been known, and the bronze aworda belong to the prehistoric period. 



