The Scold’s Bridle – 1887

Amongst the instruments of punishment introduced to Ireland was a kind of helmet formed of rods, a cage in fact, within which the heads of incorrigible scolding viragos were incased. Provision was made to stop any oral whirlwind of the patient by a counter tongue of metal extending inwardly from a frontal bar, and nicely adjusted to fit an average female mouth.
A fine and well-preserved specimen of a peace-maker of the kind in question, long used in Kiilkenny, at present forms an interesting and suggestive object amongst the antiquities preserved in the museum of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland.
Professor Ball, of the science and art department, Dublin, has had this tangible evidence reproduced in excellent work for exhibition in the national museum.