The Tipperary Antiquarian

Löwenmensch figurine   by Dagmar Hollmann / Wikimedia Commons - " License: CC BY-SA 4.0 " I'm taking a break from Early Medieval and Gaelic inauguration sites to write about an interesting reference I came across recently. I watched this lecture by Prof John Waddell for a course I was doing https://youtu.be/-GI98d0EdAg and at 18.01 mins he mentions a "Tipperary Idol" that had been used as a gate-post. I did a brief search for it at the time but couldn't find anything about it. Recently the owner of https://www.facebook.com/TheIrishWay/ kindly shared some of my facebook posts and we have corresponded back and forth on occasion since. They recently suggested a book to read called "Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions" by James Bonwick. They thought it might be of interest. I had a quick look through it and the first thing I found was the original reference to the "Tipperary Idol" that Prof Waddell had mentioned. On pg 98...

The O'Meaghers were another of the Gaelic Clans of North Tipperary. King Henry the VIII includes them as one of  "Chief Irish regions and countries of Thomond and Chief Captains of the same" (See History of O'Dwyers for reference). I first came across a reference to the location of  the inauguration site in "O'Meachair - The Story of a Clan" by Gabrielle Ní Mheachair. On pg 89 it states "Ó Meachair was inaugurated as the king of his clan with a mighty ceremony at the ancient monastery of Sean Ross near the ancient town of Roscrea". However it gave no reference as to where this came from. I did a bit of research but could find nothing about it online. I then checked "The History of Ely O'Carroll Territory" by Rev. John Gleeson and that seems to be where the original reference comes from. Gleeson on pg 411 / 412 says "The O'Meagher, as Lord of Ikerrin, was instituted into the chieftaincy of the tuath (thooa) or ...