The Tara Brooch: an amazing triumph of Irish craftsmanship
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2025
- This video was first published for Mythical Ireland patrons on Patreon.com/mythicalireland in March 2024.
The world-famous Tara Brooch - one of Ireland’s greatest treasures - has no known connection with the early medieval High Kings of the Hill of Tara.
It is the finest piece of ornamented metal jewellery from medieval Ireland, and is made from bronze, silver and gold.
The Tara brooch is elaborately decorated on both faces. The intricate craftsmanship of the exceptionally fine gold filigree panels depicting animal and abstract motifs is outstanding. There are studs of glass, enamel and amber.
The back is flatter than the front and the decoration was cast.
The brooch was reportedly found by a peasant woman’s children at Bettystown beach in County Meath, not far from where the river Boyne meets the Irish Sea.
It is thought the brooch might have been found elsewhere and the woman’s family changed details of the discovery to avoid any dispute with the owner of the land where it was really found.
The woman offered the brooch for sale to the owner of an old iron shop in nearby Drogheda. He refused to purchase it, thinking it insignificant!
It was then bought by a watchmaker in Drogheda, who cleaned it up and brought it to Waterhouse Jewellers in Dame Street, Dublin, who paid “nearly as many pounds sterling” as the Drogheda watchmaker had paid pence for it!
By the 1860s the Tara Brooch was in the possession of the Royal Irish Academy, who purchased it for two hundred pounds - quite a lot of money in those days. It had been sold “on the express condition that it should never be allowed to leave Ireland”.
Sir William Wilde (father of poet and playwright Oscar Wilde) described it as having been found “in the excavation for the harbour wall at the mouth of the river Boyne, near Drogheda, in an oak box” along with other silver objects.
Whatever the truth about where it was found, the Dame Street jeweller George Waterhouse was the one who gave it the name “Tara Brooch, a clever ploy to increase its value and interest in it.
The Tara Brooch was one of the great showpieces at the Great Exhibition of London in 1851 and the Paris Exposition Universelle, and was later visited at the Dublin exhibition by Queen Victoria in 1853.
The Tara Brooch is now on display in the Treasury room of the National Museum of Ireland (Archaeology) in Kildare Street, Dublin, where you can visit it free of charge.
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This is such a beautiful and interesting piece. Thanks for sharing this, I have never seen this before.
I live in Scotland and this brooch instantly reminded me of the Hunterston Brooch that was found in Ayrshire in South West Scotland and is kept in Edinburgh now.
The designs of both brooches look like they could have been crafted by the same Smith they are so similar.
The fact the Hunterston Brooch has viking ruins scratched into the back, does make me wonder if the both brooches originated from the same area in Ireland and the one that ended up in Scotland was stolen by the vikings.
The carved ruins state that the Hunterston brooch belong to a devotee of Brigid.
I wonder if the Tara Brooch or the location it was found, could have a connection with Brigid too?
If made in early medieval times, it would have been a real artifact, granting its wearer protection, or enhanced charisma, or skill in arts...
And if made as a "replica", a millenia later, this would still be a masterpiece of a group of people working on filigree work and gems....
Wearing a cloak and penannular brooches myself on a regular basis: how can anybody wear this monstrous piece to pin a cloak at their right shoulder? I can see no extra needle in the back, and it doesnt work like a "normal" brooch should... 🤔
😮
A beautiful piece of craftsmanship, but no one can tell us how these artifacts are made. There probably is, nt a jeweller today who could make this.
Have you changed days I love Oscar wild i have constants photo with childv someone ruined my photo of Oscar wild
Can it be confirmed it was made in ireland , how old - is it medieval , did ireland hv the craftsmen to do it ..... asking for a friend 😊
Do you know nothing of the Golden Age in Ireland ? Why do you think the Viking race frequented monastic settlements.. ....???
@@katinss9983 Agreed! Raid the rich and cast your own jewellery.
Yes we did, joker.... Germanic jealousy is disgusting....
Nice try......
Cope and cry even more, Nordicist.....