II. 

 Field-Club Work in Ireland. 



ONE of the most cheerful features accompanying the spread of 

 educational influences throughout Ireland is the support given 

 to societies whose aim is the study of things pertaining to the island. 

 The ancient and still living language, the pre-Christian tombs and 

 dwellings, the early churches, the Norman fastnesses, and, above all, 

 that art of ornamentation which is recognised throughout Europe as 

 essentially Irish, all exercise their local fascination, and all thus tend 

 to bring about that collaboration of intelligence which forms the only 

 true foundation of national life. Such researches, moreover, cannot 

 fail to encourage the study of history on a scientific basis, a fact 

 which may in time atone for the omission of the subject from the 

 curriculum of the National schools. As an example of how scientific 

 enquiry, with its painstaking observational methods, may go to the 

 root of the conditions of life in any district, I may cite the remarkable 

 paper on " The Ethnography of the Aran Islands," 1 by Professor 

 Haddon and Dr. C. R. Browne. This is, we may hope, only the first 

 of a series of dispassionate enquiries into the racial and tribal 

 characteristics of the people of Ireland ; and it will serve as a model 

 for similar studies in other countries, however " civilised " the 

 community may be. Dr. Browne has already followed the matter 

 up by a study of " The Ethnography of Inishbofin and Inishshark, 

 County Galway " 2 ; and the two papers, covering 116 octavo pages, 

 reveal to us what a charming field lies open in " the proper study of 

 mankind." The observation of man, amid his varied surroundings, 

 especially where he has long been subject to the same controlling 

 influences, is, as far as our islands go, a much neglected branch of 

 natural history, and we know more of many Pacific aborigines than 

 of ourselves. The Dublin Anthropometric Committee, in connection 

 with Trinity College and the Royal Irish Academy, has already made 

 a brilliant start towards remedying this defect. 



But probably a quietly spreading movement, mainly guided by 

 those who modestly call themselves " amateurs," is doing more 

 towards a complete knowledge of Ireland than even any of the older 

 and more professional societies could effect. I refer to the growth in 



Proc. Royal Irish Acad., ser. 3, vol. ii. (1893), p. 786. 

 Ibid., vol. iii. (1894), p. 317. 



