Clúdach: Cover

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The covers of our fourteenth volume have featured color illustrations taken from a range of nineteenth-century antiquarian publications held in the Celtic Collection of the Department of Special Collections in O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library at the University of St Thomas (the publisher of New Hibernia Review).

On our Winter cover, we present one of five plates accompanying a lengthy article, "On the Gold Antiquities Found in Ireland," written by Edward Clibborn, then curator of the Royal Irish Academy. The article appeared in the Ulster Journal of Archaeology, volume 8 (1860), on pages 36-51. In the text, Clibborn seeks to synthesize the conflicting opinions of numerous archaeologists who had examined gold objects at the RIA in the previous decades. He believes that the items are unique to Ireland, and goes to some lengths to dispute the then-popular claims that the art works had links to ancient Israel—a misguided notion that in part led to the insensitive excavation of the Hill of Tara later in the century.

The Ulster Journal of Archaeology began publication in 1853, and has appeared under the same name down to our own time. With scattered interruptions, the Celtic Collection holds a nearly full run of the journal, as well as many other rare periodicals. The Ulster Journal has also lately been digitized and is available to scholars by means of the J-STOR Irish Collection. The Celtic Collection is one of the leading repositories of Irish rare books in North America, and it continues to purchase books and other materials that add to its strengths. Readers wishing to learn more about this exceptional resource may wish to consult its web site at http://www.stthomas.edu/libraries/collections/special/collections/celtic/default.html.

We thank the University of St Thomas Department of Special Collections, and especially director Ann M. Kenne, for kind assistance in providing this and other cover images, and for help in preparing our cover notes.