26 Recent Antiquarian Explorations. 



and the tomb of Bishop O'Dea, dated 1427. I should here 

 state that the mitre and crozier of Bishop O'Dea were shown in 

 the Athenaeum, together with many other relics, by the kind 

 permission of the Most Rev. Dr. Dwyer, Roman Catholic 

 Bishop of Limerick. The crozier, of silver, studded with 

 precious stones, is about 6 feet 6 inches high, and separates 

 into three parts, which are easily joined together. The mitre 

 is studded with pearls and precious stones. Both are gems of 

 art in there way. There are also life-sized effigies in the 

 cathedral near the high altar of Donagh O'Brien and Elizabeth, 

 his wife, daughter of the eleventh Earl of Kildare, dated 1624. 

 I also noted a simple stone tablet with the following inscription, 

 without a date : — " Sacred to the memory of Dan Hayes, an 

 honest man, and a lover of his country." An old house now 

 occupied as a tenement house, adjoins the cathedral yard, in 

 which Ireton, Cromwell's son-in-law, died of the plague. 



Limerick consists of an old town and a new. The cathedral 

 stands in the old town. There are many ancient frame houses, 

 dating before the siege, now occupied as tenement houses. 

 The Corporation is endeavouring to provide better accommoda- 

 tion for the poor, as their present dwellings are in many 

 instances very dilapidated. In the old town, near to the 

 cathedral, at the end of Thomond Bridge, stands King John's 

 Castle, built in 12 10, and still occupied as a military barrack. 

 It is a massive quadrangular Norman castle, with circular 

 towers at the angles. It is still quite perfect, with the exception 

 of a few spots where the Cromwellian and Williamite cannon 

 displaced the stones, which have been since replaced by red 

 brick, which show at a glance the damages it then sustained. 

 On the opposite side of the bridge is the treaty stone, placed on 

 a pedestal. Near the cathedral, and within the grounds of a 

 convent, we examined the ruins of a Dominican Abbey. 

 Within the grounds of another convent a portion of the ancient 

 city wall may be seen, showing considerable damages from a 

 Cromwellian battery which commanded it from a hill opposite. 

 We next proceeded to St. John's Chapel, which is the principal 



