The Ardagh Chalice

Found in late September 1868 by two boys named Jim Quin and Paddy Flanagan, digging potatoes in a ringfort at Reerasta, near Ardagh in Co. Limerick. They had planted in the ringfort because farmers believed the fairies protected such places from blight. A few inches down they hit a stone slab. Underneath it was an 8th-century silver chalice, a smaller bronze cup, and four ornate brooches.

The chalice is engraved with the Latin names of the apostles. The boys’ mother sold the hoard to George Butler, the Bishop of Limerick, for £50. The bishop then sold it to the Royal Irish Academy for £500.

Quin emigrated to Australia and died in Melbourne in 1934. Flanagan is buried in the pauper’s graveyard at Newcastle West.