-58 Proceedings of the Royal Iristi Academy. 



Accidents, due to the nature of the occupations pursued by the 

 people, are, as might be expected, pretty numerous, but are seldom 

 very serious. 



(e.) Longevity. — A good proportion of the inhabitants of these 

 islands seem to attain to a considerable age. There are several very 

 old people on Clare Island, and at the time of my visit there was a 

 man of 100 years of age living in Inishturk. He was very active for 

 so old a man, and in full possession of his faculties. 



4. Psycliology. — This is perhaps the most difficult part of the sub- 

 ject to treat in a report such as this. A stranger and a visitor to the 

 islands can only get a very slight glimpse of the people's character, 

 and naturally the best side is the one which is most likely to be 

 shown him. For other things he has to depend on local informants, 

 and local prejudices are apt to influence these ; so the recorder has to 

 sift and weigh carefully before accepting all he hears. 



To the casual visitor the people are decidedly attractive. Like all 

 dwellers in out-of-the-way places, they are somewhat shy of and 

 suspicious of strangers at first ; but after the crust is broken they are 

 kind, obliging, and communicative. "With each other they are rather 

 social, and given to joking and laughing, and they seem to have a 

 rather keen sense of the ludicrous. 



They are very excitable, and said to be somewhat quarrelsome at 

 times. The island used formerly have rather a name for outrages, 

 but none of these seem to have been very serious, and they were most 

 likely largely the outcome of this excitable disposition, and to the 

 nature of the social surroundings of the time. They are decidedly 

 talkative, especially among themselves. Drunkenness may be said 

 to be unknown. They are very kindly to one another in times of 

 trouble or distress. 



The charge of laziness has been brought against them, and with 

 some degree of justification ; but the manner in which they worked 

 when organised by the Congested Districts Board, and when they had 

 some real inducement to do so, leads one to think that they did not 

 work on account of having no real interest in doing so. 



5. Folk-names. — The following list, kindly supplied to me by 

 Sergeant M'Golderick, e.i.c, comprises all the surnames now to be 

 met with on the islands except those of the police and lighthouse- 

 keepers. 



