In 1896, a gold model boat was found at Broighter on the shore of Lough Foyle in County Derry. It is eighteen centimetres long, with two rows of nine oars, benches, a paddle rudder, rowlocks, and miniature tools. It was buried in a salt-marsh, probably as a votive offering to a sea god — probably Manannán mac Lir — sometime around the first century BC.

The craftsmanship is extraordinary. Someone spent weeks on it, getting every detail right, and then put it in the ground where nobody would ever see it again. That is what an offering looks like. Not showy. Not loud. Just the best work you can do, given to the sea, in the dark, and trusted to reach where it is going.

O'Donovan recorded that Manannán was still vividly remembered in the mountainous district of Derry and Donegal, and was said to have an enchanted castle in Lough Foyle — the same stretch of water where the boat was buried. The hoard also contained a gold torc, a gold bowl, and other gold ornaments, all of exceptional quality. The collection is now held by the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin.

The Broighter boat is the earliest known physical evidence of devotion to a sea god in the Irish Sea world. It predates the written sources by a thousand years. When the Manx people carried their bundles of rushes up South Barrule at Midsummer, they were performing a version of the same act: offering the best of what they had to the one who kept them safe.