ABSTRACT
Most of the architecture that survives from earliermedieval (pre-twelfth-century) Ireland was ecclesiastical in nature, and most of the individual buildings that still stand to an appreciable height were churches. One of the enduring puzzles about Ireland’s rich Christian civilization at this time is that these churches were buildings of almost willful simplicity; the skill and energy invested in manuscript illumination, the production of metalwork, and the carving of High Crosses were rarely deployed to provide an appropriately sumptuous architectural setting for worship.
