460 



Proceedingfi of the Royal Irish Acadetny. 



ment. There are ugly bent shafts (like down pipes " from a roof) 

 at the angles ; and one corner pier has a rude little figure of St. Francis 

 in a recess, enriched with crockets, oak-leaves, and acorns. The west 

 side of the Franciscan cloister at Adare has somewhat similar pillars, 

 in couplets or groups of four, with projecting buttresses. The three 

 other arcades have plain, chamfered, pointed arches, without capitals 

 and in triplets. The Elack Abbey has a very pretty little cloister, with 

 groups of three cinquefoil-headed arches. They have shields, with 

 plain and saltire crosses inside. jS^umerous capitals and shafts remain 

 from the demolished cloister of the Dominicans in Limerick ; it seems 

 to have resembled that of Quin or Ennis, c. 1402. traces of arcades 

 are found at the Cistercian Abbeys, Old Abbey, Ballingarry, or Kil- 

 mallock, 



Sedilia, Altaes, &c. — The top and front slabs of the high altars of 

 the Cathedral and of the Franciscans at Adare remain ; neither is 

 ornamented ; the .one at Adare has five small incised crosses. The 

 sedilia are chiefly of the fifteenth century, the finest and earliest being 

 those carved with the name of John Budston, 1405, in the Cathedral, 

 and the fine groups in the two monasteries of Adare ;^ the Francis- 

 can sedilia were made by M. O'Hickie about 1490. There are some 

 very late ones at Askeaton ; the last convent has a reader's recess in the 

 refectory, with three arches and lofty shafts. An interesting piscina 

 and blank recesses, probably for mural paintings, are found at Old 

 Abbey. The sedilia at Kilmallock have been sadly defaced. I do not 

 know of any ancient font ; an ancient stoup is used for one at Shana- 

 golden, and a late basin, with conventional sprays of foliage, is in the 

 Black Abbey Church, Adare. 



Tombs and Monuments. — Limerick seems to be singularly devoid 

 of early Christian tombstones, with carvings or Irish inscriptions ; nor 

 do runic stones or high crosses occur. An ogham stone was found 

 near Rathkeale, but was probably pre-Christian. The venerable 

 monasteries of Mungret, Killeedy, and Kilmallock do not afiford us early 

 monuments. The tombstone reputed (with probability) to be that of 

 King Donaldmore, 1192, remains in the cathedral, removed from its 

 place under the belfry to the Jebb transept. It is decorated with a 

 cross and circle and four lions. A tablet with a shield displaying a 

 chevron between three lions passant and with the name"Donoh" 

 above it, is set in the chancel-wall, and probably commemorates Bishop 



1 Plate XI. 



