24 E. R. McDix on 



appeared in Limerick in 1769. This little booklet is of great 

 rarity. I only know of four copies. It well deserves to be re- 

 produced. From the Limerick presses came a History of the 

 City of Limerick, by John Ferrar, which went through two or 

 three editions. There were also works of poetry, religious works, 

 magazines, etc. 



You know well, of course, thanks to the labours of the late 

 Mr. Anderson, how printing developed during the 18th century 

 in this City of Belfast. 



Li Waterford printing seems to have revived about the 

 year 1729, increasing as the 18th century went on, and including 

 some newspapers ; but in Kilkenny printing was not apparently 

 revived until the 6th decade of the century, and even then it was 

 almost entirely confined to newspapers, with one exception, the 

 historical work of Thomas l)e Burgo, entitled shortly, " Hibernia 

 Dominicana," etc. (1762), which, however, bears a fictitious 

 imprint, though it is now known to have been printed at Kil- 

 kenny by a printer named Stokes. It was followed l)y a Supple- 

 ment. 



But I want to give you some idea of printing in the smaller 

 towns in Ireland, and in the order of their priority, so to speak. 



In Londonderry there was printing in 1724, and, with some 

 intervening gaps, the printing was kept up and increased towards 

 the end of the century. The earlier extant items of printing are 

 religious works. The first newspaper appeared in June, 1772, 

 " The Londonderry Journal." Some of the works appearing from 

 its presses were naturally about its own historical career. 



Then we find that Armagh is stated by some to have had a 

 press in 1740, but I have not been able to positively confirm this 

 from any extant information. It is a fact, however, that Francis 

 Joy, of Belfast, established a press there in 1743 or 1745. This 

 appears on record in the Journals of the Irish House of Lords. 

 One item of Armagh printing in 1751 has a title containing over 

 160 words! 



It is also stated that Joy set up a press in Newry at the 



