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The Tara Brooch.

The Tara Brooch is considered one of the most important extant artifacts of early Christian-era Irish Celtic art, and is housed and displayed in the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin.

Made in about 700 AD, the seven-inch long brooch is composed primarily of white brass and is embellished with intricate abstract decoration (termed "Celtic knotwork") both front and back. The beads contain images of over 20 wolves' heads and dragons' faces.

The design, the techniques of workmanship (including filigree and inlaying) and the gold, silver, copper, amber and glass are all of high quality, and exemplify the advanced state of goldsmithing in Ireland in the seventh century. The brooch is made in the pseudo-penannular style, meaning it wasn't meant to be a brooch to hold clothing, but to be decorative. It contains no Christian motifs, making it pagan, but it also contains no pagan religious symbols - whoever had it made was a wealthy patron who wanted a personal expression of power.

Although the brooch is named after the Hill of Tara, seat of the mythological High Kings of Ireland, the Tara Brooch in fact has no known connection to either the Hill of Tara or the High Kings of Ireland, and was discovered in County Meath in Laytown along the seashore. It was sold to an antiques dealer who saw its value and who renamed it the "Tara Brooch" to make it more appealing.

At the end of the 19th century there was a revival of Irish culture following the discovery of treasures such as the Tara Brooch and the Ardagh Chalice.

• "Delicate Irish Treasure", by Michelle Lynch, NOW magazine, January 25-31, 2007, V. 26 N. 21

• Boltin, Lee, ed.: Treasures of Early Irish Art, 1500 B.C. to 1500 A.D.: From the Collections of the National Museum of Ireland, Royal Irish Academy, Trinity College, Dublin, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1977, ISBN 0-8709-9164-7.

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