Armstrong and Lawi.gr — The Domnach Airgid. 107 



base, and described one of the four horsemen represented upon it as exhibiting 

 " with minute accuracy the costume of the nobility in Ireland during the 

 14th century." But the most noticeable feature about the horsemen's 

 costume is the ruffles round their necks, and on this account I am not 

 inclined to believe the panel to be older than the sixteenth century — an 

 opinion, I may add, that is strengthened by the inferior craftmanship of the 

 plate, which, though based upon, lacks the strength and vigour of, early 

 mediaeval work. 



Tbe Rev. J. E. McKenna, M.RI.A., 1 has suggested that the horsemen were 

 placed on the Domnach as a compliment to the Maguires, as a section of that 

 family had adopted at an early period a mounted knight, sword in hand, for 

 their " insignia or arms." 2 This seems a reasonable way of accounting for the 

 presence of such warlike figures on a sacred object : if correct, it would 

 strengthen my view as to the late date of the top, for heraldic devices do not 

 appear to have been adopted by the Irish chiefs until late Tudor times. 3 



Petrie stated that the inscription on the cross which is attached to the 

 back of the shrine was later in date than those on the front ; this is evident. 

 On the front Lombardic characters are used, while the inscription on the back 

 is in black letter. The examination of a numUer of ecclesiastical seals ' has 

 shown that good Lombardic characters were used from the early part of the 

 thirteenth to the middle of the fourteenth century, when they were replaced 

 by black letter, which, at first bold, afterwards fine and close, remained in use 

 until about 1500 A.n. The metal back of the shrine may, therefore, be as 

 late as the fifteenth century ; it is certainly not older than the latter portion 

 of the fourteenth. 



Thus the Domnach Airgid appears to have been first constructed as a 

 simple wooden box of uncertain age, having as early as the seventh or eighth 

 century a metal easing of bronze plates, coated with tin, engraved with 

 interlaced patterns. Before 1353 the crucifix, silver-gilt panels, and rim 

 were added. The fifteenth century probably saw the addition of the back 

 and cross inscribed with the names of the Three Kings ; while in the 

 sixteenth century the embossed plate was attached to the top. The pieces 

 of brass-work to be seen on the rim and on the cross on the front of the shrine 

 were possibly added by the person Petrie 5 alludes to as the " recent repairer." 



1 Ulster Journal of Archaeology, vii, 1901, p. 121. 



2 Such a device doubtless originated from a common type of equestrian seal bearing 

 the effigy of the chief. Sir Bryan Maguire, created a peer in 1627, bore arms of Vert, a 

 man in armour on horseback with a sword in his right hand. See Burke, Dormant and 

 Extinct Peerage, 1883, p. 349. 



3 Armstrong, Journal Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, xliii, p. 60, seq. 



4 See Sir W. St. John Hope, Proc. Society of Antiquaries of London, 2nd S.. xi, 

 p. 305. »Op. cit,. p. 10.' 



