Above : Cormac’s Chapel

The first Christian architecture in Ireland was developed from the style of buildings that had been used by the pagan inhabitants of the country. The Christian missionaries adopted the same style of building that was practised by the natives at the time of their coming, and gradually made such modifications as their difiereut purposes required. They built their small oratories and round bee-hive huts within the boundaries of the stone fort or cashel. The oratories of the period were angular oblong structures with the walls sloping in a curve to­wards the poof. They measure on the average fourteen feet long, nine feet wide, ami twelve feet high. A good example of the early type of oratory is found at Gallerus in Kerry.

The earliest buildings were made without cement, and with undressed masonry, and the transition to the cemented walls and dressed stones of the later buildings took place in the period dating from the sixth to the eighth century. The doorway of the churches built at this time was constructed of very large stones, which inclined inwards towards the top, with a great horizontal lintel stone. They had a round-headed or arched eastern window, the arch being scooped out of the stone, or a pointed window. They consisted at first of a single chamber, but as time went on a chancel was often added at the east end, and the churches became gradually larger and more orna­mental.

Native architecture in Ireland reached its highest development in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, in the style known as Irish Romanesque. We learn from the remains of many of the churches which were built before this period that a distinct style of building prevailed in the country at the time when the Romanesque archi­tecture was introduced from Normandy. " Rude," says Miss Stokes, " as runny of its examples are, this primitive architecture still had sufficient char­acter and vitality to modify the incoming Romanesque, and to live on manifesting itself, notwithstanding the fresh forms grafted upon it." The Irish Romanesque therefore exhibits native traditions handed down from earlier native build­ings, pagan and Christian, and is characterised by the horizontal lintel of the entablature, the reten­tion of the inclined jambs of the primitive door­ways, rich and delicate decoration, and the con­stant use of certain ornamental designs character­istic of the late Celtic period. The churches are small and have a simple ground plan. A splendid example of Irish Romanesque Architecture is found in King Cormac’s chapel at Cashel. Much has been written about the origin and dale of the round towers which are such a distinctive feature in our native architecture. Dr. Petrie has fixed the date of their erection from a period ranging from the sixth to the thirteenth century, and he has firmly established their ecclesiastical character. They were used as belfries, and as places where the inhabitants of a monastery might retire with their most treasured possessions in case of a sudden attack. The Irish ecclesiastic had possessed his church in comparative peace until the invasion of the Northmen, but when they first commenced to make their inroads into the country, and to show their bitterest hatred towards everything that sprung from Christianity, the monks found it necessary to protect their churches and cells by means of this lofty tower. Its great height, and its small doorway, generally about fourteen feet from the ground, enabled them to resist the attacks of an enemy chiefly armed with bows and arrows.

Above : One of Irish Stone Carving

The skill of the Irish Artists in stone-carving is principally shown in the great stone crosses, of which about forty-five remain. The earliest work of this kind in Ireland were the lapidary inscrip­tions in Roman lettering placed over the tombs of the dead in the first years of Christianity, and it dates from a time before the Irish artists in stone had time to form a style of their own. They seem, as Miss Stokes points out, to be rather the occa­sional and tentative efforts of men who derived their knowledge of letters from various sources abroad. At a later period we find that Ireland became the home of pilgrims and students of various nationalities who sought refuge there from the disorders arid lawlessness that prevailed in Europe. It two these fort^p* influences that woild may trace the fine relief work on the High Crosses, which shows an acquaintance with the early Christian Art of the Roman and Byzantine Schools and their systems of iconography. That art was practised by the Scotch, the Anglo-Saxons and the Welsh, and while we find the same orna­mental material used by the stone-workers of these countries, it only requires a comparison of the existing monuments to show how much superior the Irish artists were to the contemporary artists of England, Scotland, and Wales. The beautiful results attained in Ireland were due to the fact that the people possessed a fine artistic instinct. They knew how to use their decoration in the right place, and so that it should add to the effect of the fundamental form to be adorned, and they held it in subordination to the primary ide# which they wished to express in their art.

Examples of this art are found throughout Ireland. The celebrated High Cross of Tuam was considered by Dr. Petrie to rank as the finest monument of its class and age remaining in Ire­land. The beautiful stone cross at Clonmacnoise was erected to commemorate the foundation of the greatest of the churches there, and to mark the sculpture of King Flann its pious founder. The scupltures on the west side of the shaft represent St. Kevin and King Diarmuid in the act of the erection of the small Church of St. Kevin, and on the opposite side several events in the life of Our Saviour are represented in relief. On one of the two crosses at Monasterboice the panels represent the Fall of Man, the Expulsion from Eden, the Death of Abel, the Crucifixion, and the Last Judgment. There are three sculptured crosses at Kells and there are also fine specimens at Durxow and Cashel. The form in each case is that of the Latin Cross with the circle, a characteristically Irish feature, surrounding the arms of the cross. The panels are enclosed with ornaments similar to those in the manuscripts, and these are reproduced in stone with a delicacy and a lightness of touch that show the highest artistic skill. There are forty-five high crosses still remaining in Ireland, and thirty-two of these are richly ornamental. They date from a period extending from the tenth to the thirteenth century, and in their system of repre­sentation of Biblical scenes the types appear to have been drawn from the Byzantine and Latin guides which were written for the purpose of assisting Christian artists in their selection and treatment of sacred subjects. Sometimes we find associated with religious subjects, scenes from royal processions, hunting scenes, trumpeters and harpers, and other types taken from the ordinary life of the people.