The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1908-08-22

small opening in the side. for the es-
| cape of the sound. and rung by small
metallic pellet. st. Dagens. who -four
ished in the early part of the sixth
century. was. celebrated artificer:
he fabricated croziers crosses; shrines,
and chalices. and among the rest bells,
! some plain and some ornamented Will,
gold, silver and precious stones.
The bells that belonged to the prin.
| tive saints were regarded by their
successors with the most intense VEN
Grafton; and in order the better to
preserve them, they were often fur
nished with covers, which We're some-
times made of gold and silver and
other metals, deliberately ornamented
with interlaced work and precious
stones. They were often. like croziers.
and other relics, used for swearing
on: and it was customary to bring
them into the presence of parties VIII i,
were entering into compact, to rem
der it more solemn and binding.
st. Patrick had a celebrated bell,
which plays an important part i'll many
of the Patrician narratives, both leg
endary and authentic; it was called
Finn aidheeh,' or the fair sounding;
and it would appear that other saints
called their bells by the same. name,
in imitation of their great predecessor.
Many of these quadrangular bells are
now preserved in the Museum of the
Irish Academy in Dublin, as well as in
other collections: and among them one
IN particular is believed, with good
reason, to be the very bell-the melod-
ious Finn ia idheeh-of st. Patrick.
In the neighborhood of many of our
ecclesiastical ruins the people have
beautiful legends about the church,
bells; that in some far distant time,
when despoilers-Danes or natives
came to plumber the monastery, the
bells, which some of the legends say
were Of silver. were hastily taken
down and thrown for safety into the
nearest river or lake, where they re-
main to this day. But at intervals
some say every seven years-they are
heard to ring with faint, muffea
melancholy sound.
The bell that hung in the church
of Rattoo, in Kerry, is now at the
bottom of the river Brick; its voice
has often been heard, but the people
have never been able to find it, though
they have often searched.
The bells Of the ancient church of
Drumcliff, near Ennis, in Claire, lie
beneath the waters Of a lakelet in the
townland, which is called Pou)nag-
lug, the pool of the bells; and the
thieves who stole the silver bell of
Killodonnell Abbey, near Rothmelton,
in Donegal, were drowned in crossing
Tough swilly in a boat with their
prize; but the bell still lies at the bot
tom of the Tough, and is heard to ring
every seven years.
1t would appear that those stories
are not always without a foundation.
There existed for generations a tradi-
ton that the bell of st. Mioch, who
founded the monastery of Kilwheery.
on the brink of the river Brosna, near
Ferbane, in Kings county, was, in time
of persecution, thrown for safety into
a particular pool of the Brosna. Dur
ing the drainage works in 1s49, the bed
of the river was altered and the bell
was found in the very pool pointed out
by tradition. It was enclosed in Il
shrine which was taken away and sold
But the bell itself is still preserved.