250 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Acadeiiii/, 



on the modern Irish, sometimes on the fevr local names preserved 

 in the Annals, never on the most important mediaeval records ; so 

 it evidently is no slur even on the great name of O'Donovan if 

 modern workers do not let themselves be overborne in all cases by 

 the decisions (sometimes very liasty, and even subsequently con- 

 tradicted by the authors themselves) as given in the "Letters." 



It may also be pleaded how very little has been done by 

 previous workers in the district to throw light on the Castles. Grose/ 

 Fitzgerald,^ and Lenihan^ rarely give more than brief, general, sporadic 

 notes. The Rev. James Dowd was the first to give us fuller 

 material* for the general study of the Castles. In "Memorials of 

 Adare," Lady Dunraven gave an excellent description of Adare, 

 of which Castle Mr. George Hewson gave another^ more critical 

 account. Add to these Lady Dunraven' s notes on Dunnaman, 

 Fitzgerald's on Shanid, and our own on Askeaton and Carrigojiunnell, ' 

 and the bibliography is practically exhausted.'^ May I hope tliat 

 I may be forgiven the faults of a pioneer in this survey, and that it 

 may lead to a series of fuller descriptions by local workers, at least 

 for the more important castles and better preserved peels ? All who 

 have worked on such subjects and know their difficulty will forgive 

 errors in the present writer ; but I hope they may publish the 

 corrections whenever a material error is detected. 



It remains to thank the same kind friends whose help I acknow- 

 ledged in the Survey of the Churches — especially Mr. M. J. MacEnery 



^ Grose, "Antiquities of Ireland" (1795), vol. i., Adare, p. 26; vol. ii., 

 Carrigogiinnell, p. 28 ; Cullum, p. 70 ; Askeaton (called Rockbarkeleyj, 71. 



' Fitzgerald and Magregor, " History of Limerick " (1827), especially 

 vol. i., pp. 227-391 ; vol. ii., p. 592. 



Lenihan, Limerick : its History and Antiquities" (1866), especially pp. 722- 



736. 



* " Eound about the County of Limerick." The fuller descriptions include 

 Kilmallock, p. 11 ; Bruree, p. 61 ; Lough Gur, p. 70; Eathkeale, p. 166 ; Pallas, 

 p. 171 ; Askeaton, p. 182 ; Glin, p. 198 ; Shanid, p. 200; Newcastle, p. 211. 



Journal, Limerick Field Club, vol. i., part i., p. 32; partii., p. 19. 



Askeaton, R.S.A.I. Journal, vols, xxxiii., xxxiv. (1903-4) ; Carrigogunnell, 

 *' Principal Castles of Limerick," 1906-7. 



~' We may add the account of Desmond's Castle, Adare, and of Cfirrigogunnell, 

 by Miss Adams (with views by Very Rev. L. O'Brien, Dean of Limerick), in 

 "Castles of Ireland," and some notes on details of Askeaton Castle in the Gentleman'' s 

 Magazine, vol. xvii. (2), 1864, p. 544. A fine view of Carrigogunnell luis recently 

 been published by Rev. J. Begley in "The Diocese of Limerick, Ancient and 

 Mediaeval," which has reached me too late for more than this reference. 



