At a meeting of the Royal Irish Academy, the Secretary presented the ancient bell that formerly belonged to the parish of Donagh in Inis-Owen.
This bell, like most ecclesiastical bells dating back to the time of Saint Patrick, had a special keeper appointed to be its custodian, with a grant of land set apart for his own use.
This gort of land in Donagh, appears to have been
religiously preserved throughout the centuries. We find one of these gorts of churchlands mentioned in an Inquisition, taken at Lifford in 1609, as belonging “to the keeper of the Saint’s bell”.
The presentation of the Donagh bell was made to the Academy by John Connellan Deane, who told in a letter then read to the Academy of how he obtained the bell —
“The facts connected with it are shortly these : a pawn-broker residing at Carndonagh in the union of Inis-Owen, which I had charge of under the temporary relief act,
offered it to me for sale when I was engaged in official business in that town. It appears to have been under the control of the pawnbroker for a great number of years. It was stated to have been found in the townland of Cean-na-
Clug [the head of the bell] which townland takes its name from the bell”.
It appears the bell had been in the possession of the late Philip McColgan, of Priestown, who was fourth in descent from a nephew of the finder (the Rev. Michael McColgan), at Cean-na-Clug, where it had been hidden away under the soil. From Father McColgan’s time it remained in the possession of the McColgan family of Priestown, but how it
found its way to the mont-de-pieté of Carndonagh has not been clearly discovered.
Philip McColgan was about eighty-six years of age when he died, about twenty years ago.
The bell of Ceann-na-cloig is a small quadrangular
hand bell, of the material known as golden bronze, about five inches in height, two and a quarter inches by two and a half inches at the mouth, narrowing to the top, which has the remains of two finger holes of about one inch diameter
each, by which the bell was held by the hand when
sounded.
An interior hook, also of bronze three quarters of an inch in depth, by one quarter inch thick, cast in bronze projects interiorly; from which was suspended an iron clapper four inches in length, having an enlarged conical thickening at the lower end that striking against the sides produced when struck a very sonorous sound. A gap has been worn in one of the sides from constant use of the
iron clapper.
This iron clapper is now wanting, since the bell has been removed to the Museum of Science and Art, Dublin, where it is exhibited among the Royal Irish Academy’s collection. It is more than probable that this ancient bell formerly belonging to the parish of Donagh had a covering case made for its preservation.
Finger holes in bells are rarely met with, they appear in the Drumholm bell, and in another small bell in the Academy’s museum, said to have been found at Castleblaney, of almost the same shape and size as the Donagh bell, being five inches in height, by two and three-quarter inches, by
two and a half inches at base.
Dr. Petrie read a paper to the Academy’ on the subject of these ancient Irish consecrated bells, wherein he has endeavoured to point out the period of their introduction into Ireland; and states, though, it is possible that they might have been in use previous to the introduction of
Christianity, he has, however, produced no authority from which to support that view. He next shows that there is abundant evidence to prove, that in, and from the time of St. Patrick, they were generally used for the service of the
Church. These bells were preserved in the churches to which they originally belonged, under the ‘cúmach’, or protection of a special keeper. They were usually enshrined in cases of the most costly materials and elaborated workmanship. Dr. Petrie proves that many of these bells, though hitherto unknown to the literary world, still remain in Ireland. All the early Irish bells are quadrangular in form and vary in height from four to fifteen inches, and that they are of the antiquity assigned to them by popular tradition he proves by a chain of historical notices collected from the Irish Annals and other records of the most trustworthy reliance.
The names of the artists who constructed and embellished the cases or shrines of many of our Irish bells are thereon engraved, thus clearly proving their Irish workmanship.
WILLIAM JAMES DOHERTY
St. Mura’s, Fahan, September 13th, 1890.