I came away from my first visit to the National Museum of Country Life, in Castlebar, entranced by a beautiful 8th Century belt shrine, the belt it had protected having once, it seems, encircled the 34-inch waist of a saint. The delicacy of its decoration – similar in style to the bosses on the side of the Ardagh Chalice but much smaller – were beautifully preserved, as were the abstract designs on the buckle. But what stayed longer in my mind were two photographs of children.
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