[3] Because the hand is clenched rather than, as is more usual for arm shrines, open as if in the act of blessing, it may have functioned as battle standard or talisman to protect or heal combatants.

[4] It is one of two surviving Irish arm-shrines (although many more would have been produced, including those of Ruadhán of Lorrha (d. 584) and Ciarán of Clonmacnoise (d. c. 549)[5]), the other being the 14th-century Shrine of Saint Patrick's Hand, also empty and also at the NMI.

[6] The fingers are inwardly bent and the hand is tightly clasped in a half-fist, rather than, as usually found in Insular arm-shrines, open as if raised in benediction (blessing).

[7][8] The art historian Rachel Moss suggests that the defiant gesture may indicate that the shrine, similar to the Cathach of St. Columba, was used as a battle standard or talisman, that is brought to a battlefield to protect or heal combatants, or bring victory against their opponents.

[11] The metal plates are made from bronze and silver and decorated with engraved ribboned zoomorphic and foliate designs[12] which bear distinctive elements influenced by Viking art: the patterns have been described as crafted in the Hiberno-Ringerike and Hiberno-Urnes.

[18] An inscription on one of the binding strips translates as "A prayer for Maolseachnail O Callaghan, Ard Ri of the Ua Ealach Mumhain who made this shrine".

[3][4] The identification of Tadhg Mac Carthaigh as commissioner is based on the shrine's similarity to other known works whose creation his family oversaw, including the sarcophagus, high cross and Cormac's Chapel at the Rock of Cashel, County Tipperary.

[24] The art historian Griffin Murray says this was "presumably in order to see the contents" and notes that the process led to the loss of "a whole row of glass studs", and damage to some of the decorations on the plate.

Writing in 1750, Charles Smith, in his book The ancient and present state of the county and city of Cork said that "the patron saint [of Donoughmore] was named St Lachteen, and some years ago the parish priest kept here a brazen hand as a holy relic, by which the people swore upon all solemn occasions, but the hand was removed by one of the titular Bishops of Cloyne.

"[22] The wealthy Healy family were its hereditary keepers before the 18th century, and it is known that it was valued enough that they used it as a deed to their estate and argued over its ownership during a (underlying land) dispute with the see of Cloyne.