Wakeman's handbook of Irish antiquities

by W. F. Wakeman

(From the interior.)

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St. Flannan’s Church.​—​This building, which is similar to the ‘Houses’ of St. Kevin and St. Columba, is the best built of the class, and adjoins the Cathedral of Killaloe. The nave is 29 feet long, 18 feet broad, and the walls are about 3½ feet thick; the chancel is in ruins, and appears to have been about 12 feet broad. The arch is plain with inclined jambs, and is 8½ feet in height. The nave is barrel-vaulted, and the croft lit by a semicircular-headed window in the west gable, and a triangular-headed one in the east. It is entered by a remarkable doorway in the west gable; the jambs are inclined, and support a series of recessed semicircular arches. The church is attributed to Brian Boru, but Petrie considered it much earlier. The doorway cannot be earlier than the tenth century; and the probability is that Brian re-edified the building, as he did the Church of Iniscaltra.

CHAPTER XI.
EARLY DECORATED CHURCHES.

DEVELOPMENT OF STYLE​—​CHURCH OF INISCALTRA​—​KILLESHIN​—​RAHAN​—​KING CORMAC’S CHAPEL AT CASHEL​—​FRESHFORD.

Churches like those described in the last chapter, we have every reason to believe, were constructed before the Anglo-Norman invasion of this kingdom. How long the style continued is a matter of uncertainty. We find in the process of architectural development that the horizontal lintel appears gradually to have given place to the semicircular arch-head. The high-pitched roof becomes flattened, the walls lose much of their massive stone-work character and are generally higher, and cement appears to have been used. The windows exhibit a slight recess, or a chamfer, upon the exterior, and are of greater size; a small bead-moulding is occasionally found extending round an arch upon the interior. As the style advances, the sides of the doorways, though still inclined, become cut into a series of recesses, the angles of which are slightly rounded off. The addition of a slight moulding​—​at first a mere incision​—​upon the piers, would seem to have suggested pillars. Chevron and other decorations, which in England are considered to indicate the Norman period, are commonly found; but they are generally simple lines cut upon the face and soffit of the arch. Pediments appear; and the various mouldings and other details of doorways and windows become rich and striking, and, in some respects, bear considerable analogy to true Norman work. The capitals frequently represent human heads, the hair of which is interlaced with snake-like animals. To this style of architecture, which has its own distinctive characteristics, the term ‘Hiberno- or Irish-Romanesque’ has been applied. The churches, as a rule, are small in size and simple in plan, after the manner of the earlier buildings. Horizontal forms, so strong a feature in the old, are combined with the rounded forms in the new. The decoration contains elements distinctly belonging to that ornamentation which is so striking a feature of the metal and manuscript work of the period. This transition can be traced to the beginning of the eleventh century, but was not fully developed for a century later, and would lead, as Petrie says, ‘with every appearance of probability, to the conclusion that such architecture existed here previously even to the Norman Conquest of England.’[124]

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Iniscaltra.​—​The principal church in the monastic establishment founded by St. Caimin in the seventh century on Iniscaltra, in Lough Derg, was re-edified by Brian Boru (died 1014), the buildings having suffered the usual fate of destruction by the Danes. The chancel of the church is the work of that king, and the nave also was restored. The west doorway​—​a fine work though now much decayed​—​consisted of three concentric semicircular arches, ornamented with chevron mouldings in hollow lines. ‘The piers of these arches were rectangular, but rounded at their angles, so as to form slender semi-cylindrical shafts, with angular mouldings on each side, and having in capitals well-shaped human faces carved in low relief.’ The chancel-arch consists of three receding and concentric plain arches, the piers being rounded into semi-columns with carved capitals.

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