Ireland's Minister for Arts, Heritage and The Gaeltacht, Jimmy Deenihan, TD, unveiled The Brian Boru Millennium Crown in Dublin Castle on Thursday, along with the RT. Hon the Lord Inchiquin, O’Briain, the 32nd direct descendent of Brian Boru.

The crown commemorates Ireland’s High King and is being given to the Irish people as a gift from Jewels for Cures. The Crown will be on display in the Throne Room, Dublin Caste during Easter week.

Not-for-profit group Jewels for Cures commissioned Da Capo jewellers to make this crown using particles from donated jewellery in the crown’s medallions which are set in silver and gold.  Period references from the time of Brian Boru are included in the contemporary design by goldsmith Sé O’Donoghue.

The crown was going to be auctioned, with the buyer receiving a miniature replica and the proceeds going to cancer research, but Jewels for Cures founder, Alison McCormick realised there was a better way to use it.

“I had no idea that so many from Irish clans families and from the royal houses of Europe would be so interested in the crown,” she says, “their donations of gold, make its value priceless and we want to keep it working to fund the greatest battle of our time – the cancer battle.”

The crown has been donated to the Irish people and will be displayed around Ireland and abroad. A sixth medallion will be added to the crown this year, allowing for particles of further donations of gold.

The names of the people who whose gold is in the crown will be placed on The Brian Boru Millennium Descendancy Scroll. Donors who wish to have their family name also added to The Descendancy Scroll can do so by donating €250 and to commemorate their families and contribute to Clinical Cancer Research Trust’s  research efforts.

Notable donors to the Crown are His Serene Highness Prince Albert of Monaco (the family’s ancestor Ua Cellaig  - one of Brian Boru’s greatest allies who was also slain at the Battle of Clontarf) and Sir Michael Smurfit.

For more information visit www.ccrt.ie.

** http://www.ccrt.ie/donation-form/

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