Golden balls as big as these need no words

The Times We Lived In: Photograph by Paddy Whelan, published July 19th, 2001

As regular readers of this column will know, Irish Times photographers have made an art of the wordless smile; and the maestro of sheer mischief is Paddy Whelan. This image from the summer of 2001 issues a challenge to his sub-editor colleagues – put a caption on that, folks, if you dare.

Wisely, perhaps, the caption-writer resisted the temptation, simply naming the men as Matthew Nugent (left) from Cabra, Dublin, and Martin Currey from Perth, Western Australia. Well, it would have to be men, wouldn't it?

Women looking at big balls just wouldn’t be the same.

We don't know the story behind the visit of these two men to the Ór exhibition at the National Museum of Ireland in Kildare Street – apart from the obvious: that it was (and is) one of the most spectacular sights to show any visitor to the country, and that those of us who live here should need no encouragement to go to the museum on a regular basis.

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Clearly, however, they’re impressed by this particular exhibit – as well they might be.

The “balls” are actually Bronze Age necklace beads. They were discovered in 1834 by men digging potatoes at Tumna, Co Roscommon, having lain hidden for nearly 3,000 years.

In the words of an article from Irish Archaeology magazine: "The balls were fashioned out of small lumps of gold that had been painstakingly hammered into very thin hemispheres. The hemispheres were then fused together, via the addition of heat, to form hollow balls. Remarkable feats of gold working, the balls varied in size, with the largest measuring 97mm in diameter and the smallest 68mm across. Their weights were similarly diverse, with the heaviest tipping the scales at 73g and lightest at 38g."

Now that is jaw-dropping. If this is a Bronze Age man’s idea of a necklace bead, heaven only knows what size their balls were.

Arminta Wallace