Minutes of Proceedings. 127 



The Council having had under consideration the importance of 

 bringing into more manageable bounds the enormous masses of infor- 

 mation scattered in various works on the early history of Ireland, 

 have offered a prize of £100 for the best Dictionary on the model 

 of a classical dictionary, containing a digested account of all names of 

 persons and places to which reference is made in the facsimiles pub- 

 lished by the Academy — a term of three years being fixed as the limit 

 within which the prize can be obtained. 



A still more important step in the direction of securing proper 

 attention to Celtic studies has been taken by the Council during the 

 past year, in accordance with the decision of the Academy. In 

 endeavouring to carry out the purpose of the Todd Memorial 

 Fund, the Council have appointed Mr. Maunsell Hennessy as the 

 first Todd Professor of the Celtic languages ; to which end measures 

 are being taken that the necessary funds m^j be drawn out of Court, 

 so that the Todd Professor will, it is hoped, be enabled to deliver four 

 lectures on subjects connected with his Chair during the ensuing 

 year. 



On the other hand, the Council regret to report the serious 

 loss that has befallen the Academy, in the death of its Irish scribe, 

 Mr. Joseph O'Longan. They have already in a communication to the 

 Academy expressed their deep sense of the value of Mr. O'Longan's 

 services, and have addressed to the Members, on behalf of his family, 

 an appeal to which they have generously responded. His unexpected 

 death has, as was natural, put a stop for the time to the work of 

 the transcription of Irish MSS., by which the Academy has sought 

 to place its literary wealth at the disposal of a wider circle of 

 scholars, and so facilitate the speedier sifting of the historical and 

 philological materials in the possession of the Academy. It is hardly 

 necessary to add, that negotiations are in progress with a view to 

 secure the satisfactory continuation of this desirable work, but the 

 arrangements will take some little time to mature. The Council 

 expect, however, that the work will be shortly resumed, and that the 

 new arrangements when completed will, besides, tend to the accumu- 

 lation of suitable material for the great desideratum in these studies — 

 a trustworthy Irish Dictionary. 



In another branch of this department of Celtic studies, the Council 

 report that, as the slow progress of the work of carrying through 



E. I. A. MINUTES, SESSION 1879-80. Ll^J 



