82 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



aptly remarks (p. 392), good food will not evolve from the ordinary type of 

 occidental races the special characters possessed by the Irish horse. The 

 feature in which the Irish horse differs so markedly from the heavy races of 

 England and the Continent is that it resembles in certain respects the Arab 

 horse. The interesting point established by Professor Eidgeway, that th& 

 breed for which Arabia has become famous has originally been introduced 

 into that country from Libya, does not concern us here. The important fact, 

 to be noted is that the Irish horse apparently shows distinct traces of an 

 Eastern influence. 



Wlien Professor Ewart examined the Connemara ponies nine years ago, 

 and furnished a report on them to the Irish Department of Agriculture 

 and Technical Instruction, he expressed the view (pp. 181-184) that the 

 resemblance to the Eastern horses, so often noticed among these ponies, 

 must be due to an introduction of Arab blood. He thought Arab horses 

 must have been introduced in the West of Ireland within the last few 

 centuries.^ 



Some authorities have urged that this Eastern blood in the Irish horse 

 was due to an importation of Spanish horses possessing Eastern characters,. 

 Ireland having had frequent intercourse with Spain in former times. 



Professor Eidgeway argues, on the other hand, that a breed of horses 

 closely related to the North African existed in this country long anterior to 

 any supposed introduction of Spanish stallions into Ireland (p. 392)- ; even in 

 pre-Christian times, he thinks, an importation to Ireland of Libyan horses 

 must have taken place from France (p. 401). The African resemblance to 

 the Irish horse is attributed, therefore, by Professor Eidgeway as being 

 largely due to human introduction. 



It was this point which Professor Eidgeway asked me to elucidate for the 

 British Association meeting in Dublin by means of the splendid collection of 

 equine remains contained in our Irish National Museum. 



The most perfect ancient horse-remains in our Museum are those discovered 

 by Mr. George Coffey in the Craigywarren Crannog, County Antrim.^ They 

 are, no doubt, the best preserved in existence. Since Mr. Coffey believes these 

 remains to date back at least to the tenth century, they enable us to obtain 

 a good idea of the kind of horse then inhabiting Ireland. I may mention 

 that the state of their preservation, the circumstance of their occurrence in 

 the mud of the kitchen-midden and round the margin of the Crannog^ 



1 Evrart, J. C. : " The Ponies of Connemara." Journ. Department of Agriculture, Ireland, 1900. 



* Eidgeway, loc. cit, 



* Coffey, George; "Craigywarren Crannog." Proc. E. Irish Acad., vol. xxvi., Sect. C, 

 1906-7. 



