86 The Early Christian Architecture of Ireland. 



showed a series of photographs that give a very realistic picture 

 of them. They consist of a number of stone beehive huts, 

 and the remains of St. Michael's Church, dating probably from 

 the sixth century. There are also crosses, burial monuments, 

 and oratories. On the sea side is a huge Cyclopean wall, 

 built plumb with the precipice. Mr. Milligan proceeded to 

 describe and show photographs of the ancient churches with 

 square-headed doorways. A photograph was shown of the 

 doorway and east window of the church of Ratass, near Tralee, 

 built in the Cyclopean style, and he referred to other churches of 

 that early style, notably to the doorway of Maghera Church, 

 County Derry ; also the church of Banagher, near Dungiven, in 

 the same county. The earliest churches are small in size, oblong 

 in shape, and devoid of all ornamentation. They consist of 

 one apartment only. Where there is a chancel, it can be shown 

 to have been added to it at a later period. Though the earliest 

 churches of the entablature style were devoid of ornamentation. 

 Dr. Petrie believes this did not arise from poverty or ignorance 

 of the arts. He says if we examine the metallic work of this 

 ancient age, particularly the croziers and the shrines for the bells, 

 we shall see that artistic intelligence of a high order existed. 

 The illuminated manuscripts from the seventh to the tenth 

 century are also evidence of artistic taste of the highest order. 

 The Irish were naturally conservative, and they clung to old 

 forms and customs. The first churches erected by St. Patrick 

 were of this type, and they adhered to them long after they 

 were able to do better work. There was a style of stone roofing 

 invented in Ireland and peculiar to it, which ultimately reached 

 great perfection in the twelfth century, as exemplified in Cormac's 

 Chapel. The oratory of Gallerus would seem to have been the 

 original type of stone-roofed church, from which, by a gradual 

 advance, our native workmen ultimately succeeded in the 

 twelfth century in producing Cormac's Chapel and the Church 

 of Queen Deirvorgilla at Clonmacnois. For a period of about 

 700 years native art flourished, until it became suddenly extin- 

 guished by the unsettled state of the country consequent on the 



