ABSTRACT
The history of Irish early-medieval metalworking is best understood by examining the development of personal ornament. At the beginning of the Christian era, the well-to-do Irish wore cloak fastenings which derived— like other aspects of their costume—from late Roman Britain where there were Irish settlers and where ties of intermarriage ensured the presence of a strong British influence in Ireland that is reflected in language and writing as well as in changes in religion and economy. The basic brooch type was the zoomorphic penannular brooch (“zoomorphic” because the ring ends in stylized animal heads, “pennanular” because the ring is incomplete). The brooch was equipped with a free-swiveling Bronze penannular brooch, Coleraine, Co. Derry. <italic>Photograph reproduced with the kind permission of the Trustees of the National Museums and Galleries of Northern Ireland.</italic> https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315161723/04038af1-adee-4cd1-ba37-3a547fe8bb9a/content/fig21.jpg"/> pin and functioned by skewering the cloth of the cloak and pressing the ring down so that the pin passed through the gap. The ring was then rotated so that the pin lay on top of the ring and was pulled tight against it by the drag of the cloth. The terminals were often raised with respect to the ring to ensure that the pin did not slip back and pass between the terminals. As time went on the terminals became enlarged and were used as a field for the display of ornament.
