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Ireland and the Making of Britain
torque of gold around his neck, a white shirt with a full
collar and intertwined with red gold thread upon him;
a girdle of gold, inlaid with precious stones, was around
him ; two wonderful shoes of gold with golden loops upon
his feet; two spears with golden sockets in his hands,
with many rivets of red bronze, and he was himself,
besides, symmetrical and beautiful of form, without blem-
ish or reproach." The passage is but typical of many in
the Irish tales relating to habiliments, vestiture, weapons,
and armor, which, in the case of the higher classes, were
costly and splendid.
Ireland's former wealth in gold was nothing short of
extraordinary. "For hundreds of years Ireland was an
enormously rich country, supplying not only herself but
also Britain and part of the Atlantic seaboard with gold.
Such natural wealth must have produced a marked effect
on the relations and culture of the Irish." 1
Giraldus
Cambrensis testifies to the abundance of gold in Ireland.
Montelius remarks that "Ireland's wealth of gold in the
Bronze Age is amazing." "No other country possesses
so much manufactured gold belonging to early and
medieval times," says E. A. Smith. 2
"Ireland's original
wealth of gold must have been so vast as scarcely to be
credited," says an authority already quoted. 3
repeatedly
It has been
remarked that in the literature of no other
country are there as many references to gold, as an ordinary
possession, as in Irish literature. This Irish wealth
of gold is one of the unsolved mysteries of Irish history.
The mere extant remains exceed the known medieval
quantity of gold of any country, save perhaps equatorial
Colombia alone.
iReid, Archaeologry, En. Brit, llth ed.
* Of the Royal College of Mines (London).
Reid, loc. clt
92