Mahakfy — The Introduction of the Ass into Ireland. 535 



that he now is in Monaghan in 1802, in Clare in 1808 ; probably, along 

 with mules, in a few other counties. But, generally, the animal was of little 

 account till the first decade of the nineteenth century. 



Yet, if the negative conclusions derived from the silence of the eighteenth 

 and opening nineteenth centuries seem to me well established, I am still at 

 a complete loss to answer the questions which this argument immediately 

 suggests. If the common use of asses be indeed so recent, surely we should be 

 easily able to find out by whom they were imported, and for what reasons ? 

 And yet to these obvious questions I have failed to find an answer which 

 is supported by direct evidence. 



Naturally, in the face of the Act of 1783, concerning hawkers and pedlars, 

 many of whom were certainly gipsies, and at the suggestion of Professor 

 Kelleher, I turned to that people as the importers of the working ass to 

 Ireland, especially as the travelling tinkers of the present day (mostly 

 gipsies) usually have an ass or two to carry their furniture. I had no leisure 

 to study the history of the gipsies with any care; but, so far as I went 

 I could find no special association between asses and gipsies in England, 

 Scotland, or here. I went through the Index of seven volumes of the Gipsy 

 Lore Joicrnal, and could not find a single allusion of any sort to the ass. 

 The gipsies in Scotland — they have been there since Tudor times — are 

 closely connected with horse-dealing and horse-stealing; but I cannot find 

 in books on the subject that they went about Scotland with asses. 



Though, therefore, it is quite possible that the first trade in asses may 

 have been through Galloway gipsies, there is no clear evidence so far as 

 I can find. 



We come now to the possible causes which may have induced the poor in 

 Ireland — a country full of horses and ponies — to adopt this inferior animal, 

 at least inferior as it exists in Ireland, for none will use such language of the 

 Egyptian or the Spanish ass. 



From what I have found, I take the early days of the nineteenth century 

 to be those in which the wide diffusion of the animal took place among us. 

 Were there any large causes acting then which might have affected Ireland ? 

 It was obvious to think of the Peninsular War, which lasted 1808-13, and to 

 which the British expedition actually started from Cork. The excellent 

 index to that precious book, Wellington's Despatches, in twelve vols. 

 (Gurwood), shows that he was in constant anxiety about his supply of horses. 

 He even discusses whether it were practical to import them from America 

 or from Brazil for his army, lie spoke of £30 or £40 each, then a very 

 large sum, being given for cavalry horses, and complains that England and 

 Ireland seem unable to supply one-twentieth of the horses which the French 



