The Elbert County tribune., 1907-07-11
IRISH CHURCH BELLS
THE EARLIEST ONES WEIGHED
ONLY A FEW OUNCES.
First Adopted About the Time Ct st
Patrick in the Fifth Century
Were Made Of Ham
mered Iron.


II was about the time of st. Pat
rick, in the fifth century, that bells
began to be adopted in the Christian
church. though their use in other di-
rections was long anterior to Chris,
tianity, as Mr.. Layard records having
found some in the palace of Nimrod.
The first Christian bells, like St. Pat
ricks, weighed only few ounces. and
from that they gradually increased
till the greatest weight was reached
at Moscow with 1913 tons of beautiful
ly enriched work, a strange contrast
to humble "Clog-an-eadhaehta Petra
ic,'' or bell of Patrick's well' some
times referred to as the bell of Ar
magh, with its diminutive dimensions
of six inches deep. made of thin sheets
Of hammered iron. bent into four
sided form. fastened with rivets and
brazed or bronzed. This bell is at
once the most authentic and the old.
est Irish relic of Christian metal work
that has descended to us, and is men.
toned in the Annals" under the date
of 552.
Such as this were the bells of the
early apostles of Ireland. but the age
was progressive one. and advancing
art soon claimed the bells to work on.
and the hammered iron gave way to
bronze castings, more snillful work.
nanship and to more perfect reson.
ance. We are fortunate enough to
have on loan the finest example in
the Bangor bell of what the craft of
bell making had advanced to by the
time the tenth century had dawned
For 500 years the iron bell of Patrick
had done its duty. and now it had tc
be laid by.
The same story applies to many
other famous bells of Ireland and
their shrines, but the church loved
these ancient bells, and their associa.
tions rendered them most precious
relics They must be preserved. and
the far famous gold workers of Ire
land came to the rescue and brought
the national art, then in the zenith OF
its perfection, to bear on the eases"
to hold them called ''shrines" and by
far the most beautiful of all was that
for the bell of the great patron saint
of Ireland.
The early church builders and
artificers of ireland were skillful and
bold and fearless in their creations;
with an independence of thought, they
struck out original lines to work on.
We see 1t in the stoneroofed
churches, the stately round towers,
the great crosses-a model of one, the
finest cross on earth, stands near the
case containing the bells-and by the
preservation of the bells themselves
we see In the reliquaries or shrines
another master thought. repeated no
where else. and these remain a purely
Irish characteristic. A few found g
resting place in Scotland, but great
authority says they are attributed to
Irish saints, and we naturally turn to
Ireland in search of the parent
group"
The Shrine" was made to inclose
the rude iron bell. This fine example
of the goldsmith's work must have
been executed between the years 1901
and 1105, when Donell McAuley
whose name is given in the inscrip
ton, filed the see of Armagh. The
shrine is made of brass, on which the
ornamented parts are fastened dowr
with rivets. The front is adorned with
silver gilt plated, and knot work ir
golden filigree. The silver work is
partly covered with scrolls, some in
alto-relievo and some in bas-relief. II
is also decorated with gems and crys
tails. and on the sides are animal
forms, elongated and twisted into in
terlaced scrolls. Since the Original
shrine was made, in 1891, it has never
been lost sight of, but has been hand
ed down from custodian to custodian
generally of the same family.