1899-190°-] 549 



21 November. 

 President's Address. 



I have selected the " Work of the Club " as a suitable 

 subject to bring before you this evening. 



Since I addressed you last year we have lost a prominent and 

 valued member of the Club, our late President, Mr. Lavens 

 Ewart, who was called away in the Spring of the year. He 

 took the greatest interest in our work, especially the archaeology 

 and ancient church history of our country, and we shall greatly 

 miss his genial presence amongst us, and his ready sympathy 

 and help in the promotion of every good cause. 



My object now is not to survey what has been done in the 

 past and report progress ; when the end of the century comes 

 next year we shall probably be flooded with reviews of the 

 work of this century of all kinds. I hope amongst them we 

 may have a history of the past work of the Club. My object 

 to-night is rather to look forward and survey some of the 

 ground which we hope the Club may be able to occupy in the 

 coming century. Not to criticise what has been done, but to 

 see how progress may be made, and how the various branches 

 of the work of the Club may be developed in new directions to 

 keep pace with the days in which we live. 



The object of a Field Club is, I suppose, two-fold: — 



1st., to promote the study of Natural History among its 

 members by mutual assistance and encouragement, and also to 

 try to popularise these pursuits by gaining new disciples. 



2nd., to work out in detail the Natural History of its own 

 district and place on record these observations, and in this way 

 add to the sum of general knowledge. 



We have no reason to be ashamed of the record of our Club. 

 The oldest in Ireland it has lived to see the birth of similar 

 societies in Dublin, Cork, and Limerick. It has had among its 

 members some good Naturalists whose work is known beyond 

 our own district, and who have made permanent contributions 



