278 Royal Irish Academy. 



before the notice of the Irish Government ; they accordingly drew up 

 and forwarded a Memorial to His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant^ 

 stating the details of the case as far as at present known to them, 

 and requesting His Excellency's aid in procuring the transfer of this 

 find to the Academy's museum. They have received an acknowledg- 

 ment of the receipt of the Memorial, which, they are informed, ia 

 under consideration. ( Vide Appendix p. 287.) 



Two additional rooms in the Museum Building have been, as was 

 anticipated in the last Eeport, made available for the Academy's col- 

 lections ; the arrangement of which on a more systematic basis is now 

 being carried out, and an improved system of lighting the Long 

 Eoom, in which portions of the Academy's collections are exhibited, 

 has been introduced. 



The Curatorship of the Academy's Museum having for some time- 

 remained vacant, the Council was in May, 1897, requested by the- 

 Lord President of the Committee of Council on Education to make a 

 selection from a limited number of candidates, submitted to them, for 

 the office. They accordingly selected Mr. George Coffey, b.a.i, and he 

 was appointed by the Lord President with the title of " Superinten- 

 dent of the Collection of Irish Antiquities in the Science and Art 

 Museum." 



During the past year several important donations have been made 

 to the Library of the Academy. Among these were the following : — 



Erom The Earl of Crawford, his privately printed works on Procla- 

 mations. 



Erom Rev. M. H. Close, Treasurer of the Academy, a set of 

 valuable geological drawings by the late G. Y. Du Noyer, m.e.i.a. 



Erom Edward Perceval Wright, m.d., Secretary of the Academy, 

 a collection of autograph letters of the first Earl of Charlemont, Presi- 

 dent of this Academy (1785), addressed to Alexander Haliday, m.d., 

 of Belfast. This collection is specially valuable here, as it supple- 

 ments the series of Charlemont correspondence presented to the 

 Academy by James Molyneux, third Earl of Charlemont. 



Erom the representatives of the late Thomas Coats, Esq., of 

 Ferguslie, a copy of the valuable and elaborately illustrated work, in 

 three quarto volumes, on the " Coinage of Scotland." By Ed. Burns,- 



r.s.A., Scot. 



