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228 228 ARCHITECTURE OF IRELAND. Part II. retire for repose when the excitement of imagination no longer suffices to supply his daily intellectual wants. These may lead to a consider- able development of cathedral and monastic establishments, but not to that self-governing parish system which is so congenial to the Saxon mind. View it as Ave will, the study of Gothic architecture in Ireland is a melancholy one, and only too truly confirms what we know from other sources. It does not even help us to answer the question whether or not Ireland could successfully have governed herself if left alone. All it does tell us is that, from the accidental juxtaposition of two antag- onistic races, one of thetn has certainly failed hitherto in fulfilling the artistic mission Avhich, under favorable circumstances, it seems eminently qualified to perform. ■•Si##»^A£'<<^^ G62. Cloister, Kilconnel Abbey. From these causes, the Gothic antiquities of Ireland would not deserve much notice in a work not specially devoted to that one subject, were it not that, besides these, Ireland possesses what may properly be called a Celtic style of architecture, which is as interesting in itself as any of the minor local styles of any part of the world, and, so far as at present known, is quite peculiar to the island, None of the buildings of tliis style are large, though the ornaments on many of them are of great beauty and elegance. Their chief interest lies in their singularly local character, and in their age, which probably extends from the 5th or 6th century to the time of the English con- quest in 1169. They consist principally of churches and round towers, together with crosses and a number of other antiquities hardly coming within the scope of this work. No Irish church of that period now remaining is perhaps even 60 ft.