The Round Towers of Ireland

sition which he is himself, shortly after, the most industrious to contradict; namely, "that the gods, to punish so much vanity a

or "presumption" in that humble design; and when to this we add the nature of that security, which he tells us they were to establish, one would

never suffer anything by condescending to investigation, I will, to put the reader in full possession of

s, that "a people so admirably skilled in masonry never could have experienced any impediments in building substantial dwellings, strong castles, palaces, or any other structures of public

dest and most circumstantial annalist,-on the subject of the Pillar Tower is dumb and silent as the dead"; whence he infers the "non-existence of those Towers d

ndition of Ireland and its inhabitants to be barbarous in their days,-in common with their neighbours the Britons, Gauls, and Germans, to who

gination of man";-whereas in the vicinity of the Pillar Tower no such thing is seen, unless some natural or accidental excavation may happen to exist unaccountably in that direction. His inference from which is, that "al

was roomy enough to admit into it four thousand persons." "The size of those temples," he adds, "was regulated according to the extent or amount of the local population, being spacious and magnificent in large cities, and

difice, or of one calculated to accommodate, withinside its walls, a certain congregation of devout people, met to pray. Should the building, to answer any partial or private use, be constructed upon a diminutive scale, like the little round t

reflection on the geographical and political condition of primitive Ireland, and the avowed tardy progress towards civilisation and an acquaintance with the fine arts then common to those nations not conveniently placed within th

General Vallancey's footsteps. To his undoubted services, when temperately guarded, I have already paid the tribute of my nati

worship of the Great Architect of the universe; and with this view it was that the science was, at first, studied as a sort of religious mystery, of which there can be required no greater possible corroboration than the circumstance of that ancient and mysterious society who date the existence of

e recollect that in the East also-whence all our early customs have been derived-their mud-built houses present the greatest possible contrast between the simplici

s or his forgetfulness; because the same inference which he deduced from the non-appearance of coeval architecture of any other class, would apply as well to the period which he wishes to est

ls of which are now to be found in that of the echo, which, to your affrighted fancy, asking inquisitively and incredulously, "Where are they?" only repeats responsively, "Where are they?"-passing over this, I tell him that, more highly favoured than other countries, we possess, in Ireland, ample evidences of those remnants which he so vauntingly challenges. Traverse the isle in its

ery; and I readily believe that most of his readers anticipate the same result: but this little book will soon shiver the fallacy of such calculations, and adduce, in its proper place, from the very he

y pass of vindicating our ancient bards from

hey show themselves, in support of that repute,-whether as individuals or a community,-in every cause involving the far higher interests of moral rectitude, of virtue, and of religion. In the legitimate indulgence of this honourable emotion the Irish have ever stood conspicuously high. No nation ever attended with more religious zeal to their acts and ge

ir agency in this department was a legitimately recognised and graduate faculty; and, in accuracy of speech, the only one which merited the d

ives-as poets, as prophets, and as philosophers; while the dignity and emolument attached to their situation, and the distinguished rank assigned them, at the general triennial assemblies of the state at Tara-with the endo

d not succeed better, in depicting the almost sanctity of their general behaviour, than by transcribing a stanza descriptive of the qualities

aimh lith

rl gan ean

ghlama ga

na lana

at

he hands free

ouths free f

learning wi

he love free

ic seclusion, in exposing the objects of their private spleen, tended not a little to bring their body into disrepute, and subject them additionally to the salutary restrictions of legislative severity. They were not less extrava

r hunc invecta

nis opprobria

in eti

lo qu? mallet c

ribi

e history and records of the nation, and preserve its history from the intrusions of barbarism. To this end it was that they met for revision at the senatorial synod; and the importance of this trust i

their fancies were ever on the stretch; while the varieties of metre which they invented for the purpose, and the facility with which they bent them to ea

their extemporaneous hymns; with this they chanted the honours of their heroes. The battle-shout and the solemnity of the hour of sacrifice were the usual scenes for the concerts of our anc

invigorated their frames; and they who, but the moment before, were most conspicuous in upholding the dogmas of the pagan creed, became now the most dist

is order. Verse ceased to be used in their historical announcements. Prose succeeded, as a more

, and the intrepid acts of heroism inculcated by their example, if not the actual cause

evere, those poetic enthusiasts would fling themselves amongst the ranks of the enr

mbering patriotism, and, as Tyrt?us used the Spartans, enkindle in their bosoms a passion for war. We must not be surprised, therefore, to find in the preamble to some of the acts passed in those times for the suppression of this body of men, the following harsh and deprecating allusion

udal reminiscences. As it was their country's lustre that inspired the enthusiasm of the bards, so, on the tarnishing of its honour, did they become mute and spiritless. The

ur harps wer

se captives

griefs in

grieve us

musique ma

us now a

ave nor voi

song in s

ed on the statements of those Greek and Latin writers above named, respecting

whose religious ceremonials, for the celebration of which the Round Towers were constructed, the then inhabitants did not only abhor, but did all in their power to efface and obliterate. Nor was it the religion alone of this inoffensive and sacred tribe that this new and devastating race of militants laboured to extirp

which that heaven irradiates. The commerce of the whole East pressed tumultuously to our shores-the courts of the polished universe (not including Greece or Rome amongst the number) sent us embassies of congratulation; while the indomitable ardour and public-spirited zeal of the "islanders" themselves launched them abroad over the bosom of the wide watery circumferen

r an arbitrary adjective? Amongst the many discoveries which will develop themselves in succession, before I shall have done with this little book, I pledge myself to the public incontrovertibly to prove that the word "Hibernian"-so grossly abused and so malignantly vilified, and which Avienus has recorded as the name of the islanders at the period in whic

acred to Baal, the capacity of which was sufficient to accommodate four thousand persons, therefore the Round Towers, w

istinct country, and of every minor subdivision and canton in that country-into the specific and gentile classifications of Baal Shamaim, Baal Pheor or Phearagh, Baal Meon, Baal Zephon, Baal Hemon, etc.

temples assume a corresponding shape; and it shall be my lot, in the progress of this litigated research, to show why t

ressed truth; and by the help of which, as a military bastion, he had fondly hoped he might link together the Church and the sword in one

the newly-converted kings and toparchs; the builders and architects being those monks and pilgrims who, from Greece and Rome, either pr

m imperial Rome,-whither he had gone to complete his theological studies, towards the end of the fifth century,-and not knowing how to occupy those strangers in t

a pretext, at least, for such; and so, in the eagerness of his milito-monastic zeal, he flies off, at a tangent, to the top of Mount Colzoum, near the desert of Ge

re is his own translation of Bonna

our of St. Macaire, who has been a lay brother in this convent. All the cells stand separately from each other; they are ill built, the walls being composed of clay, covered in with flat roofs and dim

monasteries in the desert of St. Macaire, distant about three days' journey from Grand Cairo. The first is the convent of St. Macaire, which is ancient and in a ruinous state-the bones of the founder are enshrined in a stone coffin, placed behind an iron gate, enveloped in a chafe or pluvial (a sort of church o

monasteries in the desert, the doors of which, and of the con

his is the basis upon which Colonel de Montmorency builds his superstructure of monastic appropri

he wrath of time"; yet, in the same breath, made the counterparts of a few trumpery, temporary, and crazy old piles, which were originally erected as military stations, totally distinct from religion or religious uses-similar to those erected by Helena, mother to Constant