Armstrong and Lawlor — The Domnach Airgid. 109 



her it was purchased by Mr. George Smith, the well-known Dublin book- 

 seller. When it was opened it was found to contain a mutilated copy of tlie 

 Gospels. It was apparently in Mr. Smith's hands when it was exhibited to 

 the Academy in 1832 ;' and a few years later it was sold by him to the Hon, 

 Henry Eobert Westenra, afterwards third Baron Eossmore, for £300. Ulti- 

 mately it was purchased by public subscription, and became the property of 

 the Academy in 1847. 2 



When the Domnach came to Dublin it was naturally assumed that it had 

 originally belonged to St. Tigernach's monastery at Clones, for nothing was 

 then known of its early history except what might be inferred from the 

 inscription which states that its outer case was constructed by permission of 

 a comarb of Tigernaeh. That was the view expressed by Sir William Betham 

 a day or two after he saw it for the first time. He wrote that the manuscript 

 which it contained was "probably the property of St. Tigernaeh himself." 

 He seems to have found confirmation of this opinion in the representation on 

 the cover of the shrine of one ecclesiastic handing a book to another. This, 

 he held, was St. Tigernaeh passing on the Domnach to his successor Sinellus. 3 

 I mention the fact because it is an illustration of the fatal ease with which 

 evidence for any theory can be found in such sources. 



But Betham's guess was put out of court by the discovery made by 

 Dr. Petrie, that in two early documents — in one of which it was actually 

 called the Domnach Airgid, or Silver Shrine — the Domnach was stated to 

 have been presented by St. Patrick to St. Mac Cairthinn, the founder of Clogher. 



I quote the passages, as I shall have occasion to mention them in the 

 sequel. The first is from the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick (ed. Stokes, 

 p. 175f.): 



" Once as Patrick was coming to Clochar from the north, his champion, to 

 wit, Bishop Mace Cairthinn, lifted him over a difficult place. This is what he 

 said after lifting Patrick : ' Oh, oh ! ' ' My God's doom ! ' saith Patrick, ' it 

 was not usual for thee to utter that word.' ' I am [now] an old man and I 



1 It is stated in the Transactions that Dr. Petrie read the paper, which will be referred 

 to immediately, on 22 October, 1832, and 9 January, 1837. If so, it must have been 

 largely altered in the interval between those dates. In the Ms. minutes, under 

 22 October, 1832, there is no mention of a paper : it is merely recorded thai Petrie 

 exhibited the shrine. But nnder 9 January, 1837, we read, " Dr. Petrie exhibited a Ms. 

 of the Four Gospels of which he had given an account in a paper some time since before 

 the Academy." 



2 Proceedings, iii, 237, 413 ; iv, 115. 



3 Carleton, I.e., p. 439 f. That Sinellus was the successor of Tigernaeh, or had anything 

 to do with the establishment at Clones, is unsupported by evidence. See my Fragments 

 of the Register of Clogher in the Louth Archaeological Journal, vol. iv, no. 3, Extract ii. 

 Sinellus was the possessor of a noted shrine, but it was called Deargann. 



