Above: Gold ore

Tighearnmas, whose refiner was Uchadan, was the first to discover a gold mine in Ireland. The gold was smelted at Fotharta, east of Lithfe, and was so plentiful in the district that the people of Leinster got the name of " Laighnigh an Oir." Gold was also found at Killaloe, Derry, Tyrone, Antrim.
Muineamhon was the first king to decree that collars of gold were to be worn round the necks of the nobles in Ireland. In the time of his successor, Ailldeargoid who was slain by Ollamh Fodla at the Battle of Tara, gold rings were first worn on the nobles’ fingers. In the reign of Eanna Dearg, the twentieth king after Ollamh Eodla, money was first coined in Ireland, at Airgeadros. There are over fifty gold rings of the " ring-money " variety in our National Museum, and fifteen gold sun-discs, as against four in the British Museum.
Those linulae or flat collars, regarded as the earliest of the gold ornaments of Ireland, have been found in quite astonishing number all over the country. Close on forty specimens, some of the highest excellence, are preserved in our national collection, which contains also twenty-four golden tores of various kinds. Two magnificent tores were found in one of the raths at Tara. Among the other treasures still surviving are gold gorgets in endless variety. A collection of thin gold gorgets, discovered at Moghaun, in the excavations for the Limerick-Ennis railway station in 1854, has been valued at £3,000. Some of them, unfortunately, have been melted down. There are, besides, five large gold gorgets or neck-collars, the ends of which are decorated with ornamented discs. In one instance, the disc is attached to the gorget by perpendicular and cross stitches. Some of these fastenings are composed of fine woollen thread, round which is twisted a thin flat strip of gold. This suggests, even at the cost of slight repetition, a brief consideration of the extent to which the precious metals were used in the apparel, accoutrements and household decoration of the Red Branch and Fiana periods.