Armstrong and Lawlor — The Domnach Airgid. 119 



gives contemporary witness to an incident in its history prior to the nine- 

 teenth century. It is of great interest. 



It proves that a few years, at the most forty-five, before the outer case was 

 made the Domnach was not at Clones but at Clogher, and it implies that 

 Clogher was its normal home. "We may infer, with little hesitation, that it 

 was there from the time of the writing of the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick and 

 the Life of St. Mac Cairthinn to the year 1308. Moreover in that year it was 

 the principal shrine of the cathedral church. It is most unlikely that the 

 bishops surrendered it to the Abbot of Clones shortly afterwards. Indeed the 

 inference is probable that it was retained in the cathedral as long as the see 

 was held by bishops who set a high value on a shrine so ancient, and on the 

 relics which it contained, that is to the last decade of the sixteenth century. 

 The document itself seems to indicate that it was still in its old home in 1525, 

 when the Clogher Eegister was compiled. Why the permission of the comarb 

 of Tigernach should have been required for the construction of the new case 

 it is impossible to determine ; but the inscription which records this fact can 

 no longer be held to prove that it belonged to Clones. 1 



Further, the alternative title of the Domnach was the " great shrine of 

 St. Mac Cairthinn." This makes it fairly probable that the shrine was supposed 

 to be as old as the fifth or early sixth century, and it confirms the opinion 

 already expressed that at the beginning of the fourteenth century it was 

 believed to have been always the property of the church of Clogher. But in 

 view of the inscription just mentioned, the omission of any reference to 

 St. Tigernach is significant. Hardly less significant is the silence about 

 St. Patrick. We may venture to infer from it that the story that the 

 Domnach was a gift from St. Patrick to St. Mac Cairthinn was unknown or 

 disbelieved at Clogher. 



Again, the shrine was obviously used as a reliquary. The relics of 

 St. Constans and those of St. Fergiumiuth were laid in it, the former enclosed 

 in a " cista parua siue pixis," the latter wrapped in linen. There can be no 

 doubt of the fact if the " cista parua " is the existing box of yew ; but this is 

 improbable. 2 It is certain, however, that neither the small cista nor the linen 

 wrapping can have been attached to the outside of the case. Nor can they 

 have been placed beneath crystals, even if we suppose that the original metal 

 covering had such adornments. Be it remembered that here we have to do 



1 See further below, p. 12G. 



2 For these reasons : (1) it would hardly have been called a '•parua cista" ; (2) the 

 context suggests that the " cista " was made for the reception of the relics : the yew box 

 was in the shrine from the first ; (3) the relics of St. Fergiumiuth were apparently not in 

 the "cista " ; but they could not have been in the shrine and yet outside its lining. 



R.I. A. PROC, VOL. XXXIV, SECT. C. I'.' 



