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| Ardagh Chalice | |
|---|---|
 Ardagh chalice at the National Museum of Ireland |
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| Material | Silver, gilt bronze, gold wire, glass, and enamel. |
| Created | Early Christian Period (700 CE - 800 CE) |
| Discovered | 1868 near the village of Ardagh, County Limerick, Ireland |
| Present location | National Museum of Ireland, Dublin |
The Ardagh Chalice, which ranks with the Book of Kells as one of the finest known works of Insular art, indeed of Celtic art in general, is thought to have been made in the 8th century AD.
The large, two-handled silver cup, decorated with gold, gilt bronze, brass, lead pewter and enamel, has been assembled from 354 separate pieces. The main body of the chalice is formed from two hemispheres of sheet silver are joined with a rivet hidden by a gilt-bronze band. The names of the apostles are incised in a frieze around the bowl, below a girdle bearing inset gold wirework panels of animals, birds, and geometric interlace. Techniques used include hammering, engraving, lost-wax casting, filigree applique, cloisonné and enameling.
It was found in 1868, together with a small bronze cup and four brooches, by two boys, Jim Quinn and Paddy Flanagan, digging in a potato field on the south-western side of a rath (ring fort) called Reerasta, beside the village of Ardagh, County Limerick, Ireland. It had a bronze cup within it, and four ornate brooches (fibulae). Buried without the least protection as they were, covered merely by a slab of stone, the pieces must have been interred in a hurry, probably temporarily, as though the owner probably intended to return for them at a later time. The brooches found with the chalice show that it was not buried until the Vikings period.
It is now in the National Museum of Ireland. The standard monograph is L.S. Gógan, The Ardagh Chalice
The chalice was featured on a £1 value definitive postage stamp issued by An Post between 1990 and 1995 as part of the series Irish Heritage and Treasures designed by Michael Craig.
Two Gaelic Athletic Association trophies are modeled on the Chalice: the O'Duffy Cup and the Sam Maguire Cup.
Finally, it may be related to the Derrynaflan Chalice found close by in the neighboring County Tipperary. At that time the ruling dynasty in Tipperary and most of Munster were the Eóganachta, while their allies and possible cousins the Uí Fidgenti ruled in the Limerick area (see Byrne 2001; Begley 1906). Although the early suggestion that the chalice was fabricated at Clonmacnoise and stolen from there by a Limerick Dane is widely circulated, this is unprovable. A Munster origin is just as likely if not more so given the 1980 discovery of the sister Derrynaflan Hoard. A Clonmacnoise origin is not mentioned at the National Museum of Ireland website [1].
External links
See also
Further reading
- Begley, John, The Diocese of Limerick, Ancient and Medieval. Dublin: Browne & Nolan. 1906.
- Byrne, Francis J., Irish Kings and High-Kings. Four Courts Press. 2nd edition, 2001.
- Duffy, Seán (ed.), Medieval Ireland: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. 2005.
- Gógan, Liam S., The Ardagh Chalice. Dublin. 1932.
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