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Showing posts from August, 2025

The Lost Seal of the Hospital of St. John of Nenagh

  By WH Patterson - RSAI (1912, 46) In the early 1900s an antiquarian named W.H. Patterson (from Belfast) purchased an ancient seal in Kingston-on-Thames in London.  It was made of silver and following some investigation it was thought to be of Irish origin. On it was the inscription "+ S HOSPITALIS IER NENAGH".   Patterson wrote a note about the seal in the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquarians Ireland (1912, 46) detailing that the inscription  " may be translated: "The seal of the Jerusalem Hospital at Nenagh," or " The seal of the Hospital of Jerusalem at Nenagh." The device in the central part shows two female figures ; the taller, I presume, is intended to represent the Virgin Mary, and the smaller one an angel holding a scroll, on which is inscribed "Ave Mari”. In this note he appeals for any further information on its origins.  In 1936 Dermot Gleeson picks up the case, again appealing in the Royal Society of Antiquarians Journal (19...