[Illustration: THE CHURCH AND ROUND TOWER OF DONAGHMORE, COUNTY OF
MEATH.]
English and other visitors to our metropolis who dare the perils of the
deep, and various other perils now equally imaginary, to see something
of our Emerald Isle, are generally directed as a matter of course to our
far-famed county of Wicklow as the only picturesque lion within a few
hours’ journey; and certainly in this romantic region they will find
much to gratify the taste, and which will remain indelibly fixed on the
memory. But, delightful as such excursion undoubtedly is, it will only
convey to a stranger’s mind a partial and imperfect impression of Irish
scenery; and he will be apt to conclude that however rich we may be in
the possession of lakes and mountains--the grand but solitary domains
of nature--we are wholly wanting in scenery of a different class, that
of the richly wooded pastoral valley, blooming with artificial as well
as natural beauty, the anciently chosen abodes of luxury and rank, and,
as such, rich in memorials of the past, with their attendant historical
associations. Scenery such as this, the proud Briton will most probably
think the exclusive boast of his own favoured isle. He will not imagine
that it is also to be found in equal perfection in Ireland, and even
within a short distance of the metropolis. It is not in the Guide or
Tour Book, and is but little known even to the well informed of the
citizens of Dublin themselves, more of whom have seen and enjoyed the
scenery of the Thames than that of the Boyne, which is within four hours’
journey. Yet the scenery of the Boyne, following its course upwards
from Drogheda to Navan, a distance of eleven miles, and the scenery of
the Blackwater, a river tributary to the Boyne, ascending from Navan to
Kells, a distance of eight miles more, is, in its way, of a character as
beautiful and luxuriant as could be found anywhere, or even be imagined.
Scenery of this class of equal richness may be often found in England;
but we do not know of any river’s course of the same length in which
natural beauty so happily combines with the artificial, or in which
so many interesting memorials of past ages could be found. Scattered
in rich profusion along the banks of this beautiful river we find the
noblest monuments of the various races of men who have held sway in
Ireland: the great earthen fortresses, stone circles and dome-roofed
sepulchres of the Tuatha de Dananns and the Fir-Bolgs--the raths of
the Milesians--the churches and round towers of the earliest Christian
times--the proud castles of the Anglo-Norman chiefs and their equally
imposing architectural structures dedicated to the services of religion.
In the variety, if not the number of such monuments here found, the
Boyne is without a rival in any Irish river, nor do we think it could be
paralleled by any river in the empire; and we might truly add, that it is
on its luxuriant banks, amid so many instructive memorials of past ages,
that the history of our country, as traced in its monuments would be best
studied.
It is from amongst these interesting remains that we have selected the
subject of our prefixed illustration--the Church and Round Tower of
Donaghmore, situated a little more than a mile from Navan, on the road to
Slane.
This religious establishment, which was anciently called _Dumnach-mor
muighe Echnach_, owes its origin to St Patrick, as will appear from
the following passage translated from the life of the Irish apostle,
attributed to St Evin:--
“While the man of God was baptising the people called Luaiguii, at a
place where the church of Domnach-mor in the plain of Echnach stands
at this day, he called to him his disciple Cassanus, and committed to
him the care of the church recently erected there, preadmonishing him,
and with prophetic mouth predicting that he might expect that to be the
place of his resurrection; and that the church committed to his care
would always remain diminutive in size and structure, but great and
celebrated in honour and veneration. The event has proved this prophecy
to be a true one, for St Cassanus’s relics are there to be seen in the
highest veneration among the people, remarkable for great miracles, so
that scarcely any of the visitors go away without recovering health, or
receiving other gifts of grace sought for.”--Tr. Th. p. 130.
But though the existing ruins of the Church of Donaghmore sufficiently
indicate it to have been a structure “diminutive in size,” its
architectural features clearly prove that it is not the original church
of St Patrick’s erection, but a re-edification of the thirteenth
century, in the usual style of the parish churches erected by the
Anglo-Norman settlers within the Pale. Neither can the Round Tower,
though unquestionably a structure of much higher antiquity than the
present church, be referred to the time of the Irish apostle, or perhaps
to an earlier age than the ninth or tenth century. At all events, its
erection cannot be ascribed to an earlier date than that of the Tower of
the Church of Kells--a religious establishment founded by St Columbkille
in the sixth century--as these towers so perfectly agree in architectural
style and masonwork, that they appear to have been constructed by the
same architects or builders.
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.