Eithne Verling selects the O’Tully Cup, on view at Galway City Museum
One of the most remarkable artefacts currently on display at Galway City Museum is a wooden mether known as the O’Tully Cup. This four-handled drinking vessel, which belonged to the medical family of O’Tully (Ó Maoiltuile) and is inscribed ‘Dermot Tully 1590’, is a unique example of the adaption of a mether (meadar) by a Gaelic family of hereditary physicians. The surface is covered with astrological-medical symbols of the time, suggesting that it was used to diagnose illness and predict the best time for treatment.1 Medical astronomy, including astrology, originated in the time of Hippocrates and was developed by Greek and Arabic physicians. The symbols on the O’Tully Cup were used to calculate the position of the planets and their relationship to the body and its diseases.
