2 32 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



a cell. This still remains on the north wall of the chancel, and displays the 

 once favourite legend of the three dead and three living kings, and the equally 

 favourite design in later medieval hagiology, the martyrdom of St. Sebastian. 

 There is also a design of the removal of our Lord's body from the cross. All 

 of these were dated in the thirteenth century, and explained as representa- 

 tions of several kings of Connacht and of the execution of Dermot 

 Mac Murrough's son, with other rather wild conclusions, by Petrie and the 

 older antiquaries. There is no evidence that the alleged colours on the designs 

 were anything save weather-stains.' In Quin Franciscan Abbey, County 

 Clare, an elaborate design in raised stucco with I.H.S., the Sacred Heart, the 

 Crucifixion, with St. John and the holy women, remains over an earlier tomb 

 It was rudely sketched by Thomas Dineley in 1680, and I have made a 

 measured drawing which I hope may be published soon ; but no trace of colour 

 remains in the stucco. None of these designs is in fresco, though the 

 term is constantly applied to them, and I think all, except the last, are 

 earlier than the Eeformation. 



The design in Clare Island differs from all those previously described. 

 The arch of the vaulted ceiling was first turned over wicker centering. The 

 rough face was covered by a good undercoat, on which was painted an 

 ornamental design in deep, rich crimson, later than the " Easter Sepulchre," 

 as it appears on the edges of the stonework there ; the joints were also painted 

 with it, and an illegible inscription appears on the side of the south window 

 recess. The whole was then covered with a later coat of soft, coarse plaster, 

 roughened, and a finer and harder layer spread over it to carry the painting ; 

 the bands of the imitation groining and rough sketches of the designs in 

 the sections were graved (the first carefully, the others rudely) with a sharp 

 instrument. Unfortunately the soft under-coat has proved its ruin ; it swelled, 

 broke the harder layer, and got overgrown with a dark -green alga, which is 

 destroying all before it. Of the older work I have been able to recover very 

 little definite. On the soffit of the doorway to the south stair are red bands 

 to either side, with a saltier between, and red lines for imposts to either side. 

 There were, as I must note lower down, inscriptions in the recess of the south 

 window of the chancel, and evidently the head of the credence table arch, or 

 shrine, was relieved by red bands on a thin coat of plaster, following the lines 

 of the arch and cusps. The Easter Sepulchre had a broad band round its 



1 Beranger in 1779 examined them with Bigari, a professional fresco-painter, and found that th e 

 designs were hare, black outlines with no trace of colour. The green was found not only on the 

 clothes hut on the faces of the figures. (Roy. Hist, and Arch. Assoc, now U.S.A. I., vol. i, 

 ser. iv (xi consec), 1870, p. 241.) The catalogue, E. I. Acad., p. 350, states that they were 

 coloured in green and yellow, hut the account was derived from the copy made by MacManus for 

 the first Dublin Exhibition. Some of the figures are illustrated (Irish Penny Journal, i, p. 227, and 

 U.S.A. I. vol. xxiiv, p, 242, and xxxv, p. 419. 



