Ancient Irish Crown

[From the Dublin Penny Journal, Vol. 1, No. 9, August 25, 1832]

Ancient Irish Crown

Among the innumerable antiquities hitherto discovered in Ireland, there is nothing, perhaps, of greater interest, or which more curiously illustrates the antiquity of our monarchic institutions, than the Golden Crown represented above. In its style and workmanship it is perfectly eastern, and unlike every thing of the kind used in Europe within historic times. It was found ten feet under the ground at a place called Barn an eli, in the county of Tipperary, in the year 1692; and was purchased by Joseph Comerford, Esq., a gentleman descended from a younger brother of Comerford, in the county of Stafford, who attended King John in his expedition into Ireland. It is said still to be preserved by the family of that gentleman in the Castle of Anglure, in Champagne, to which he retired after the war of 1680. Its weight was only about five ounces. Similar crowns have been found in other parts of Ireland of somewhat greater weight, but none of them have been preserved.