Fonsie Mealy Auctioneers RARE BOOK & COLLECTORS SALE 6th & 7th, December 2022

109 Fonsie Mealy’s Est. 1934 now displayed in the church at Boher, Ballycumber, not far from Clonmacnoise. Nearby are the ruins of an ancient church, and a holy well, both named after the saint. Manchan was revered not only for his piety, but also for his poetry, as in these verses attributed to him: I wish, O Son of the Living God, O Ancient Eternal King, For a hidden hut in the wilderness, a simple secluded thing. The all-blithe lithe little lark in his place, chanting his lightsome lay; The calm, clear pool of the Spirit’s grace, washing my sins away. A wide, wild woodland on every side, its shades the nursery Of glad-voiced songsters, who at day-dawn chant their sweet psalm for me. A southern aspect to catch the sun, a brook across the floor, A choice land, rich with gracious gifts, down-stretching from my door. Few men and wise, these I would prize, men of content and power, To raise Thy praise throughout the days at each canonical hour. Four times three, three times four, fitted for every need, To the King of the Sun praying each one, this were a grace, indeed. Twelve in the church to chant the hours, kneeling there twain and twain; And I before, near the chancel door, listening their low refrain. A pleasant church with an Altar-cloth, where Christ sits at the board, And a shining candle shedding its ray on the white words of the Lord. Brief meals between, when prayer is done, our modest needs supply ; No greed in our share of the simple fare, no boasting or ribaldry. This is the husbandry I choose, laborious, simple, free, The fragrant leek about my door, the hen and the humble bee. Rough raiment of tweed, enough for my need, this will my King allow; And I to be sitting praying to God under every leafy bough. When first exhibited, in the Dublin Great Exhibition in 1853, the medieval Shrine of St. Manchan attracted enormous interest and several life-size replicas were made around this time. One of these, based on casts taken by Dr. Alexander Carte, curator of the RDS museum, was (according to Graves), in the collection of Dr. Lentaigne of Dublin. A wealthy physician, John Francis O’Neill Lentaigne lived at Tallaght demesne, where he had a private museum of antiquities. His replica, now in the National Museum, gives an idea of how the reliquary originally looked, with its elaborate Romanesque and Viking decoration fully intact. A similar imaginative version is in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The present replica, commissioned by Wilde, is a more faithful copy of the actual shrine. Wilde also commissioned a second replica, which he presented to the Royal Irish Academy. A scholarly book detailing the Shrine of St. Manchan, with text by Dr. Griffin Murray FSA and photographs by Kevin O’Dwyer, was published in October 2022. Provenance: The Earls of Dunraven, Adare Manor, purchased by the present Vendor at the dispersal sale in 1982. * Dr. Peter Murray, 2022. €20,000 - €30,000