EMAP_2012_Report_6_1.pdf (7.3 MB) - The Heritage Council

potential use of brooches of varying kinds, materials and intrinsic values across a broader
swathe of society. Saints’ Lives and other religious texts also occasionally mention brooches;
for example, in one story Samthann is said to have taken a brooch from her mantle (Gwynn
& Purton 1911, 150-1). One of the Lives of Brigid, Bethu Brigte, records the use of a brooch
as a pledge, and also notes the use of the brooch by various people of different status and
gender (Ó hAodha 1978, 34).
Some other texts broaden the range of ornaments referred to. In Lebor na Cert, brooches,
bracelets and rings are all mentioned as forming part of kingly gifts, suggesting their symbolic
as well as functional use (Dillon 1962). Sagas refer to brooches and to other forms of
ornament, mostly pins but also occasionally neck ornaments and arm-rings. Many of the
heroes in Táin Bó Cuailgne wear elaborate brooches (e.g. O’Rahilly 1976, 221-3), and in the
same tale Queen Medb offers brooches and bracelets as inducements to Fer Diad (ibid. 196-
8); in Cath Maige Tuired, the king of the Fomoire wears ‘five circlets of gold around his neck’
(Gray 1982, 27).
Pictorial evidence
Illuminated manuscripts provide one source of images of how people dressed, although the
restricted nature of those depicted – mainly saints, Biblical figures and clerics – limits the
social spread: few secular figures are included, and those which are shown are most likely of
high status, so the reality and range of early medieval Irish costume is uncertain. Similarly,
images on metalwork, such as shrines, are also subject to religious context and conventions,
which affect the costumes shown. Stone carving, mainly but not exclusively on high crosses,
is the third source of images. The scriptural crosses of the ninth century and later contain a
wealth of figures, although most are small in size and limited in detail. Again, Biblical and
ecclesiastical figures dominate, although a number of scenes have been interpreted as
depicting contemporary secular figures. Most of the people shown in all three media are
male; FitzGerald (1991, 78) estimated that just two per cent of figures were female.
Children, too, are significantly under-represented, and again the focus is on Biblical figures.
Apart from the various conventions used in depiction, the media themselves have certain
restrictions. Manuscripts offer the greatest potential for detail, including colour, although
given the blue hair of St John the Evangelist in the St. Gall Gospel Book, this need not be
wholly realistic. Although the uneven chronological distribution of the various sources, and
the limited coverage of gender, age and social roles, offer an incomplete picture of the
period, the iconographical evidence nevertheless shows evidence for the costume of at least
some segments of society.
Details of dress depicted include different lengths of tunic, worn with cloaks which are
sometimes fastened with brooches. One panel on the early tenth-century West Cross at
Clonmacnoise depicts two men, usually interpreted as chieftains, wearing ankle-length léine,
belted at the waist, with a brat held in place at the shoulder by a brooch. A second panel
contains a secular figure, possibly that of King Flann mac Máel Sechnaill, wearing a shorter
knee-length tunic and an ecclesiastic dressed in a ankle-length robe and an outer garment.
The hems of the robe and tunic appear to be decorated, perhaps with tablet-woven borders
(Edwards 1990, 83-4). Other figures from carved stone crosses indicate that some men may
have worn short, tight, knee-length trews (these also appear in the Book of Kells) while the
Scandinavians appear to have preferred trousers (McClintock 1950, 1-3, 11-4; Edwards 1990,
83). The depiction of the Virgin Mary in a long cloak and tunic in the Book of Kells may
suggest that women were expected to dress in this fashion, although her particular status
and the general absence of female figures from contemporary images limit the information
which can be deduced in this regard. Manuscripts in particular offer evidence for shoes and
boots, notably in the Books of Durrow, Dimma, Moling and MacDurnan’s Gospels; some
figures, however, are depicted as barefoot.
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