Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 22, 1911.djvu/373

 Collectanea. 'XiZl

of the Delahoydes. The shrine of St. Lachtin's arm/'^ made for Cormac MacCarthy, king of Munster between 1 118-27, was pre- served in his church at Kihiamona, and about 1640 removed to Lislachtin Abbey in Kerry; no folklore seems attached to it. The crozier of St. Blawfugb, i.e. Blathmac, son of Onchu, was preserved at Rath, near Corofin, and then in a hole in the wall of the old chapel of Corofin, where it was used for very solemn swearing and was much feared. The crozier of St. Manaula (Ban Thola) of Dysert was purchased from an old woman, daughter of an O'Quin, its last hereditary keeper, and was held in great reverence for cures and as an object upon which oaths were taken. The most important of all these relics is the Clog-an-oir, or " golden bell," ^^ the empty bell shrine preserved by the Keanes of Beechpark, one of whom had married the daughter of one of the Keanes or O'Cahans the " coarbs " {comharbd) or successors of St. Senan. It consists of a bronze cover of the twelfth century, adorned by later silver plates, and violation of an oath taken on this shrine twisted the perjurer's face or resulted in convulsions and death. It js told that a gentleman living in County Galway sent his servant to borrow the " bell " to test his servants about a theft. His messenger happened to be the thief, and on the way home again threw the dreaded object into the sea. He then boldly told his master that the Keanes would not lend it. " You are a liar," was the reply, " for there it is on the table before you." The man fell on his knees, and confessed. It was last asked for in 1834, when a farmer had been robbed of twenty pounds, and borrowed the " bell " to swear the neighbours after Mass. On the Saturday night before the ordeal his family was awakened by a crash, as something was thrown in through the window. This proved to be the missing notes, tied with the original siring. There are many similar stories, and the Clog-an-oir is said to have been stolen, but to have always returned to its rightful owners. ^^

^■^ An illustration of this was published by Vallancey in 1770. See Mr. Geo. Coffey's Guide to the Christian Antiquities in the Collection of the Royal Irish Academy, pp. 53-4, 60-2, and for the croziers of Dysert and Rath and bell of Rath, The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiqttarics of Ireland, vol. xxiv. , pp. 337-9.

^* The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. xxx., pp. 237-44.

^'Much of this information came from Mr. Marcus Keane of Beechpark, the present possessor, and the remainder from the paper cited in note 18.