The Irish Penny Journal, Vol. 1 No. 22, November 28, 1840Various
History
The Irish Penny Journal, Vol. 1 No. 22, November 28, 1840
Various
Ireland -- Periodicals
This very beautiful tower is built entirely of limestone undressed,
except around the doorway and other apertures, and is of admirable
masonry. It has two projecting ledges or steps at its base, and six rests
for stories, with intermediate projecting stones or brackets in its
interior. These stories are each, as usual, lighted by a single aperture,
with the exception of the upper one, which has two openings, one facing
the east, and the other the west; and the apertures present all the
architectural varieties of form observable in our most ancient churches.
The circumference of this tower, near its base, is 66 feet 6 inches, and
its height, to the slant of the roof, which is wanting, is about 100
feet. The wall is 3 feet 9 inches in thickness, and the doorway is 12
feet from the ground. This doorway--which is of very beautiful execution,
and, as usual, faces the west end of the church--is 5 feet 2 inches in
height, and has inclined sides, and a semicircularly arched top. It is 2
feet 3 inches wide at bottom, and 2 feet beneath the spring of the arch
at top. Over the door there is a figure of the Saviour sculptured in
relief, partly on the keystone and partly on the stone over it; and on
each side of the architrave there is a human head also in relief, as on
the doorway of the church of Kells.
Some antiquaries, in their zeal to support the theory of the Pagan origin
and the antiquity of the Round Towers, have asserted that this doorway is
not the original one, but an “after work.” But there is not the slightest
ground for such a supposition, and this sculpture, as a profoundly
skilled architectural antiquary, the late Sir Richard Colt Hoare, well
observed, furnishes “a decided proof that these buildings were not (as
some writers have conjectured) built by the Pagans.”
A similar argument against the application of the Round Towers to the
purposes of a belfry, has been grounded on the circumstance of the
western front of the church having three apertures for bells above its
gable. But it should not be forgotten that this structure has no claim to
an earlier date than the thirteenth century, when a variety of bells,
and a different mode of hanging them, were brought into use by the
Anglo-Norman settlers.
The Church of Donaghmore has been confounded by Archdall and subsequent
writers with the ancient church of Domnach-Tortain, also founded by St
Patrick, but which was situated near Ardbraccan.
P.
THE DRUNKARDS, A TOO TRUE STORY.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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