Finding Of The Chalice In September 1868, a young man named Quin was digging potatoes at the south-western side of a Rath (fort) called Reerasta, beside the village of Ardagh and near the Carrickerry road. When he reached the bank close to a thorn bush he found the surface soft, and driving his spade down between the roots of the thorn, he found it strike something hard. He cleared away the earth and found a beautiful cup now known as the Ardagh chalice. In the cup there was a smaller one made of bronze and five fibulae.
	There is nothing known of the history of this precious relic of a lost art, or how it came to be buried in the Rath. It is suggested that it is one of the valuable cups that were stolen from Clonmacnoise, in the year 1125, by a Limerick Dane, who was captured and hanged the following year.
	Tradition says that Mass used to be said in the Rath where they were found, in the penal times. The chalice may have been used on these occasions to distribute communion to the multitude that assembled there. Perhaps when the alarm was given, and in the hurry of the moment, the chalice were hidden to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands. This would be supported by the condition in which they were found, there being no case or covering to protect them suggests that they were buried in a hurry. The priest or person who placed them in the earth, may never have had an opportunity of returning to the place to retrieve them.