Excerpt from The History of Ireland, Vol. 1 of 2: From the Earliest Period to the Year 1245, When the Annals of Boyle, Which Are Adopted and Embodied as the Running Text Authority, Terminate; With a Brief on the Native Annalists, and Other Sources for Illustrating Ireland, and Full Statistical and Histor Having thus introduced the Annals of Boyle to the reader, it may be asked, how this particular compilation came to be selected, as that, by which the course of the an nexed'history was to be guided P The answer will disclose some of the difficulties that works on Irish History or Anti quities must as yet encounter, - a bounty can alone bring them into market; no publisher, as the author Of these vo lumes can testify, at least on his humble experience, will, or prudently could, at once indemnify the writer, and pre sent such a work to the public, in a respectable form; there is, consequently, no alternative left for one that would pro secute such an object, but to claim, from those who might favour the introduction of peaceful studies in Ireland, and promote its dispassionate illustration, their aid and co-opera tion, at least for his mere indemnity. Having felt the ne cessity of adopting this course in former works for the local illustration of Ireland, the author, although the numerical result in these fell far short of his expectations, determined on seeking a similar guarantee for one of its general his tory, and so confident was he still in the certainty of a vastly increased list, that he actually contemplated, as he then thought, the original undertaking of editing the Annals of the Four Masters, as decidedly the most full in narrative, and extensive in scope of time fortunately, however, it transpired, in an interview with Messrs. Hodges and Smith, that they had theretofore, at their personal responsibility, engaged an editor and translator for this very work, had incurred considerable expense in the necessary prelimina ries, and were about to issue circulars (as they have since done), for a subscription list, they, therefore, claimed a right of pre-occupation, and their wish was responded to; the harvest of national literature is too heavy to justify pre judicial conflict, the apprehension ought rather be, that too much valuable produce must perish, from the deficiency ofxxn brief essay ON the native annals, etc. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.