The earliest and perhaps the best known of the old silver chalices of Galway and Mayo is the De Burgo-O'Malley chalice of 1494. On its base is the following inscription: Thomas de Burgo and Grania O'Malley caused me to be made A.D. 1494.

The following is an abridged description of the chalice and paten. "It is a tall, gracefully proportioned vessel in the Gothic style ... The cup is perfectly plain .. the foot is octagonal pyramidoid with incurved single and base lines. The stem is octagonal also and is broken a little above the middle ... by a globular knob which has a horizontal ring of eight square bosses; the outer faces arranged lozenge wise ... and enriched with translucent green and red enamel. The paten is dished and the centre chased with a large quatrefoil. A single Maltese cross is engraved on the rim... As to the exact place of manufacture of this fine example of silver smith's work we are not likely to ever to obtain conclusive evidence, but that it is of Irish, perhaps, Galway, make there is a strong probability".

Now as to the persons who caused the chalice to be made - there was a Thomas de Burgo who was a grandson of Richard de Burgo, chief of the Burkes of Mayo, (MacWilliam Eighter) from 1460 to 1469 and that Thomas de Burgo married Grania, daughter of Tadgh O'Malley; which Grania O'Malley was great grand-aunt of the more famous Grania O'Malley of Elizabeth's time. I am of opinion that these were the persons who caused the chalice to be made.

The foundation of Burrishoole Abbey was irregular, the papal sanction not having been previously obtained but this defect was remedied by a Papal Bull of 1486, sanctioning the foundation of the Abbey founded by Thomas de Burgo a grandfather.

On the other hand, Mrs Delaney, daughter of William Darcy Dowling of Tullamore, who died in 1896, and among whose effects this chalice was found in an old vestment box, states in a letter to the "Irish Independent" in April 1924, that this chalice had been in the possession of her father and grandfather, and that the family tradition was that it had been so handed down for many generations and originally came to the Dowling family through intermarriage with a scion of the Clanricard family.

However that may be the history of the chalice remains uncertain. After the death of William Darcy Dowling the chalice was given to Fr. Hugh Behan, the parish priest of Tullamore. He sent it to Smyths of Wicklow Street, Dublin for cleaning and they submitted it to T.H. Longfield, curator of the Art Museum. he pronounced it to be the most beautiful example of silver smith's work of altar plate, and the earliest in date he had met with in Ireland. Mr Behan told the Dowling family of the value of the chalice and had it auctioned in London. In April 1924 it was bought for the National Museum, Dublin, where it is now preserved. For convenience sake it may be styled teh Burrishoole chalice, tho' its connection with the Dominicans of Burrishoole is not altogether certain.

The above extract was taken from an article in the "Irish Rosary" by Martin J. Blake. Unfortunately i Have been unable to find the date of the "Irish Rosary"

(By CHEVALIER GRATTAN FLOOD, MUS.D., K.S.G.).

It is generally admitted by experts that the beautiful " De Burgo " Chalice, also known as the "Burrishoole" Chalice, dated 1494, is one of the most exquisite specimens we possess of native workmanship of that period. The late Mr. Longfield, of the National Museum, Dublin, after a careful examination, described it as "one of our oldest and most artistic chalices from pre-reformation days," while other experts are equally enthusiastic in praise of its workmanship. Its Irish provenance is admitted, and it is not at all unlikely that it was manufactured in Galway.

The knob of the De Burgo Chalice is the self-same pattern as that of the latter is in reality an chalice, but the latter is in reality an amalgam of 15th century and 17th century silversmith's work. During the past ten years various replicas of the De Burgo Chalice have been made, but, quite recently, a really magnificent replica of this wonderful Irish specimen of the silversmith's art has been fashioned by Messrs. W. Egan & Sons, Ltd., Cork, for presentation to the Chapel of University Hall, Hatch Street, Dublin, by some of the past and present students, as a thank-offering for successes in examinations. Mr. J. J. Buckley, the esteemed acting curator of the National Museum, Dublin, gives the following account of the De Burgo Chalice from an art point of view: "It is a tall, gracefully-proportioned vessel in the Gothic style.

THE CUP IS PERFECTLY PLAIN.

The foot is an octagonal pyramidoid, with incurved angle and base lines. The stem is octagonal, also, and broken a little above the middle by a globular knob, having a ring of eight square bosses." On the base of the chalice is the following Latin inscription :—" Thomas de Burgo et Grania ni Maille me fieri fecerunt. Anno Domini MCCCCLXI1II," that is " Thomas de Burgo and Grania O'Malley cause me to be made, in the year of Our Lord, 1464."

Naturally the question arises as to who was Thomas de Burgo? And, fortunately, the Irish Annals furnish a definite clue, for we learn that the great Richard de Burgo (Mac William Uachtar) was chief of the Burkes of Mayo from 1460 to 1469, and, ere his death, founded the Dominican Priory of Burrishoole, Co. Mayo, with Fr. Rory O'Moran, O.P., as Prior. In the latter year he resigned his chieftaincy of his sept, and, taking the habit of the Dominican Friars, retired to Burrishoole, where he died in 1473.

Now, referring to O'Heyne's book on the Irish Dominicans, issued at Louvain in 1702, the statement is made that the Black Friary of Burrishoole was founded in Co. Mayo, by the O'Malley, about the year 1234, but this is incorrect. As a fact, Bishop de Burgo, O.P., in his " Hibernia Dominicana" tells us that the Dominican Friary of Burrishoole was founded by Lord Mac William Oughter, head of the Burkes of Turlough, in 1469. It appears from Papal documents that the foundation of this Friary was "irregular," inasmuch as it was done without Papal sanction, but this was remedied by the Prior, Father Donogh O'Moran, O.P., who obtained a Brief from Pope Innocent VIII., dated 19 February, 1486 (the date " 1496 " in Father Coleman's excellent revision of O'Heyne, is, of course, a typographical error), giving permission for the foundation. The founder's grandson, Thomas de Burgo, married Grania, daughter of Tadhg O'Malley, and there is every reason to believe that the De Burgo chalice was a gift to Burrishoole Abbey from the said Thomas and Grania, his wife, in grateful recognition of the Papal Bull of 1486.

THE CHALICE WAS RELIGIOUSLY PRESERVED BY THE DOMINICAN FRIARS

at Burrishoole from 1494 onwards, and even in 1693, they were still undisturbed. In the Lord's Committee Returns of 1731, it is stated that the Friars—some 20 in number—were at that date labouring in the parish of Burrishoole, but, after the year 1760, the numbers dwindled down. Certain it is that the Dominicans lived in the neighbourhood of their old home until 1785, when the last of them died. The last link of the old regime was Father Francis Burke, O.P., a descendant of the de Burgos, and it would appear that the chalice was then lost sight of. A century later it belonged to Wm. Darcy Dowling, of Tullamore (Offaly), who had placed it in an old vestment box, inherited from the Burke family. Mr. Anthony Dowling, fortified by the expert opinion of Mr. T. H. Longfield, of the National Museum, Dublin, sent the de Burgo chalice to London for sale, with the result that it was purchased at Christie's by Sir Samuel Montague, afterwards Lord Swaythling. Some years later it was again put up for auction, and Mr. J. J. Buckley fortunately secured it for the National Museum of Ireland, in April, 1924.

I may add owing to the zeal and artistic instinct of Mr. Buckley quite a large number of valuable Irish chalices have been secured for Dublin, and thus priests who are desirous of having Irish replicas of ancient Irish workmanship have a large choice to select from—one of the best examples being the de Burgo chalice of 1494. —From the " Cork Examiner."

Fermanagh Herald, April 14, 1928