Westropp — On the Churches of County Clare. 127 



following are fortunately extant : — The Clog-an-Oir of Scattery, a 

 beautiful little bell shrine of two periods, is in the hands of its here- 

 ditary keeper, Mr. Marcus Keane, of Beechpark, a representative in 

 the female line of the Cahanes, coarbs of St. Senan.^ Anyone swear- 

 ing falsely on it was liable to be seized with conrulsions ending in 

 death. The bachall of St. Blawfugh or Blathmac of Eath was 

 long kept in the wall of the old chapel of Corofin ; the people used to 

 swear upon it. The bachall of St. Manawla of Dysert, which was pre- 

 served down to the present reign in the family of its hereditary 

 keepers, the last of whom, an old woman named, I believe, O'Quin, 

 sold it. Both these fine crosiers are in the museum of the Eoyal Irish 

 Academy, and have been figured and described in the Journal of the 

 Eoyal Society of Antiquaries.- The bell of Eath, a small oval hand- 

 ]3ell of very thin bronze, and the crozier of St. Colman MacDuagh are 

 also preserved in the same museum. The shrine of St. Lachteen's arm, 

 though it was not made in Clare, was preserved at his chmxh ia Kil- 

 namona before Bruodin's time, and thence removed to Lislachtin. The 

 Clog naove Augustin of Kilshanny, a bell (possibly of St. Cuanna) now 

 in British Museum. — It was used to swear upon, and was reputed to 

 twist the mouths of perjurers to one side. The only other church relics 

 are a few seals, and some pages believed to be part of St. Caimin's 

 Commentary on the Psalms, and now preserved in the Franciscan's 

 Library, Dublin.^ The beautiful shrine and book of the " Stowe 

 Missal," in the Eoyal Irish Academy, belong, it is true, to Thomond, 

 and mentions its king, Donchad, son of Brian Boru, but it was not 

 made, nor so far as we know preserved, in county Clare. It probably 

 belonged to Lorrha, and bells of the same church and of Scattery are 

 preserved in the British Museum. 



Medi(Bval Plate. — The church plate (both gold and silver) of the 

 Priaries of Ennis and Quin fell into the hands of laymen in the reign 

 of Elizabeth. Father Mooney tells how the Earl of Thomond held 

 the plate of Ennis, and how the wife of Macnamara, of Knappogue, 

 after the death of her husband, retained the plate of Quin, which had 

 been confided to him for safe keeping.* In 1573 the chiu-ch plate of 

 Kilnaboy was carried off by Teige O'Brien and his followers, and this 



iBell of Senan, see Archseol. Journal, V., p. 331. Proc. E.I.A. (Jan. 25), 1864, 

 p. 476. Archseologia, xxi., p. 559, exhibited March 9th, 1826, and K. S.A.I. 1900. 

 2E.S.A.I., 1894, pp. 338-339. 



2 See u Paper, by Mr. Hennessy, in the Dublin Ecclesiastical Eecord, 1873. 

 * Mooney MSS., Eibliothetiue Koyale, Brussels, No. 3195. 



