to be
mentioned. On it are found several figures, including three nuns, men
with books, sceptres, and swords, and a lifelike figure of a harper.

Besides articles of ornament, articles of use, such as bits for
horses and household utensils, have been found, which show that the
Irish smiths were as well able to produce articles for every-day use
as the artificers were to create works of art in metal.

With the landing of the English in 1169 the arts and sciences in
Ireland declined. Indeed, from that time on and for long afterwards,
almost the only metalworkers needed were makers of arms and weapons
of offense and defense.

REFERENCES:

British Museum, Bronze Age Guide; Coffey: Bronze Age in Ireland;
Allen: Celtic Art; Abercrombie: Bronze Age Pottery; Wilde: Catalogue
of the Royal Irish Academy's Collection; Allen: Christian Symbolism;
Stokes: Christian Art in Ireland; Petrie: Ecclesiastical Architecture
in Ireland; Coffey: Guide to the Celtic Antiquities of the Christian
Period perserved in the National Museum, Dublin; Kane: Industrial
Resources of Ireland; O'Curry: Manners and Customs of the Ancient
Irish; Coffey: New Grange and other incised Tumuli in Ireland;
Dechelette: Manuel d'Archeologie pre-historique; Ridgeway: Origin of
Currency and Weight Standards.

IRISH MANUSCRIPTS

By LOUIS ELY O'CARROLL, B.A., B.L.

In the dark ages of Europe, whilst new civilizations were in the
making and all was unrest, art and religion, like the lamp of the
sanctuary, burned brightly and steadily in Ireland, and their rays
penetrated the outer gloom. Scattered through the libraries of Europe
are the priceless manuscripts limned by Irish scribes. The earliest
missionaries to the continent, disciples of St. Columbanus and St.
Gall, doubtless brought with them into exile beautiful books which
they or their brothers of the parent monastery had wrought in a labor
of love; or mayhap many a monk crossed the seas bearing the treasured
volumes into hiding from the spoiling hands of the Dane. Yet,
fortunately, in the island home where their beauty was born the most
superb volumes still remain.

From almost prehistoric times the Irish were skilled artificers in
gold and bronze, and, at the advent of Christianity, had already
evolved and perfected that unique system of geometrical ornament
which is known as Celtic design. The original and essential features
of this system consisted in the use of spirals and interlacing
strapw