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"