Vintage Irish 6MM Hooved Beaded Rosary RARE & HOMEMA (06/27/2009)...

Home > Worthopedia – Price Guide > Fraternal, Political, Organizations >

Vintage Irish 6MM Hooved Beaded Rosary RARE & HOMEMADE

Terms and Conditions for using our site

Vintage Irish 6MM Hooved Beaded Rosary RARE & HOMEMADE

Sold For:

or Sign In to see what it's worth.

Sold Date: 06/27/2009
Channel: Online Auction
Source: eBay
Category: Fraternal, Political, Organizations

This Irish Rosary is one that you will not find anyw else except in Ireland. The reason being, that the people were forced to hide their religion and their beliefs, for fear of being killed. Because they could not just go out and buy a rosary, they made the rosaries from hooves of animals.
Thisis a very unusual rosary with light colored beads that are made from Horn & Hooves. These horn beaded rosaries come from Ireland. I have no exact information, as to age, but I would guess it is from the early 1900's possibly earlier. I'm still researching the background of horn rosaries from Ireland.
These Irish Horn Rosaries are becoming very hard to find. They are being purchased for collections and are subsequently removed from the market. I don't believe that these rosaries have been made for many years. So far I've come to believe that these horn rosaries are made because the materials were easily available. Also, the Brits persecuted Catholics in Ireland and so rosaries could not be easily sold or purchased. It was during this period of time that the use Horns & Hooves to make the Irish Penal Rosary (a small and easily hidden rosary) was practiced. Now, these horn rosaries have become a sort of "symbol of heritage", from Ireland.
When I refer to "Horns" I do not mean "Antlers". Antlers are more like Ivory in nature. These Horn beads, center medals and Crucifixes are made from the Horn or hooves from Goats, and Cows which are hollow and much thinner.
The dye in the horn of the Hail Mary measure 6MM and the dye is uneven (some areas are darker then others). The naturally clear opaque Our Father beads are also 6MM. The rosary is 19" long, including the 1 1/2" by 1" natural horn Crucifix. The back of the Crucifix is not marked. The center medal is also made from Horn, and is the letter M for Mary with a cross above the M, for Jesus, through Mary.
The circumference of the rosary is 23" and the drop is 6". The crucifix is like I said, natural horn, and has the raised Corpus of Christ. The beauty in making this rosary is reason enough just to purchase it because it may never be made again. Although the people who made these because of the material being readily available in farm animals was so abundant that it was much easier to make them from the animals horns & hooves then to purchase anything at the time that would lead someone to believe that rosaries were being made. That is why it is so important to find these rosaries. The work alone had to be very back breaking and tedious while trying to hide the making of rosaries long ago. This is a work of complete and absolute genuine love and devotion to make a rosary like this to use and to have for every day in your life. The rosary was handcrafted through someone who is a little interested in the way that was then a very unstable and fighting people who wanted to have their religion to save their souls. The way that the British made it hard for the folks at the time in history was very wrong to try to make it miserable for folks who just wanted to worship God in their own rights. I thank God that we do not have the wars, nor the fighting of the right to carry a rosary, or to pray from a rosary no matter who you are, or w you are. That is so sad that this had to be hidden so that the people were not punished for their parts in making the rosaries that they wanted and needed so much. I thank God for so many things that we take for granted today, that was not easy to learn and to practice one's own right for the chance to be their own person before God in Church. This is a great rosary and it has a very spiteful past and unnatural way that we today would say, a lot of other things about it and it should not make you feel that most of the items that I sell are like this, in fact most of everything else is OK, except for the one's that had a lot of pirates making them walk the plank in order to practice their own religion the way they wanted to. It is surely a shame for the way people were treated and the way that they did come down to the dirty level...