82 Royal Irish Academtj. 



no one could be more desirous than Professor O'Looney for the satisfac- 

 tory completion of the Tain Bo Cuailnge. His refusal to proceed -^th 

 it until the Academy shall hays done him right shows, therefore, his 

 strong sense of the injustice done him, and it is hut reasonable to 

 assume that he must have good grounds of complaint. The Com- 

 mittee itself being the chief cause of delay — I hope only the inrolun- 

 tary cause — I trust they will at once remove the only obstacle to 

 the completion of the Book — the injustice of which llr. O'Looney 



complains. 



" I am, Sir, 



" Tour obedient Servant, 

 (Signed) " WrLLiAir K. Sxtlltvait. 



" EOBEET AtEXN-SON, EsQ., 



" Secretary of the Irish MSS. Committee, H.I.A.^' 



The statements made ra this letter, referring to injustice done to 

 Professor O'Looney, are quite incomprehensible to the Committee, 

 who have always endeavoured to secure for him his full shai'e of 

 credit for any work performed by him in the service of the Academy, 

 and from whom they had never heai'd any complaint of injustice done 

 him by the Committee in any matter. In this matter they had had 

 no dealings with Professor O'Looney ; the charge of proceeding with 

 the work had been entrusted by the Committee to Dr. Sullivan alone, 

 and on- his own report that he was prepared to proceed with it. 



[Prof. O'Looney could, if he thought proper, have consulted the 

 Minute-book of this Committee, in which the letter of Dr. Sullivan 

 was set out at length, and could have transcribed it if he had so 

 desired. The Secretaiy of the Committee, on being applied to verbally 

 for a copy, to be made by the ofiS.cers of the Academy, informed Prof. 

 O'Looney that this application should be made in writing to the Com- 

 mittee, when there was not the slightest doubt that his request, thus 

 regularly brought before them, would be immediately complied with. 

 This Prof. O'Looney did not do.] 



To this letter the Committee felt there was but one reply, and ac- 

 cordingly, on February 22, 1879, they Eesolved — 



"That as Dr. Sullivan has by his letter of February 20, 1879, 

 declined ' any further responsibility' in the matter of the publication of 

 the Tain Bo Cuailng"", the ari'angement entered into by the Eesolu- 



