372 



MONDAY, JUNE 22, 1863. 

 The Very Eev. Chaeles Graves, D. D., President, in the Chair. 



His Eoyal Highness the Prince of Wales was elected an Honorary 

 Member of the Academy. 



B. E. Madden, M. D., read the following paper: — 



Eeeeeences m Spanish History to Migrations erom Spain into 



Ireland. 



An opinion has long had possession of my mind that Irish archaeologists 

 were interested in the antiquarian lore of Spain and Portugal, and that 

 it was very desirable to become well acquainted with that literature, 

 with the view of throwing light on the early colonies which came to Ire- 

 land from Spain, or from countries whose people were of a cognate race, 

 at early periods not well defined. 



A residence of many years in the Spanish and Portuguese dominions 

 has made me somewhat familiar with Spanish literature ; and during 

 that residence I turned my knowledge of the Spanish and Portuguese 

 languages to the account of Irish antiquarian interests, to the best of my 

 ability, by collecting all the old chronicles and histories of Spain and 

 Portugal in which mention is made of migrations to Ireland from those 

 countries, and extracting those references with a view to giving publi- 

 city to them. 



Spanish history is certainly calculated to throw some light, not only 

 on the origin, language, customs, and social state of the early inhabi- 

 tants of Ireland, but also to afford some knowledge of the people of those 

 countries from which at an early period there were migrations- into Ire- 

 land. I am of opinion that archaeology has been retarded in its progress 

 by the tendency of those who pursue it to narrow too much the sphere 

 of their researches, and to confine their inquiries to subjects which are 

 connected solely with the monuments or antiquities of their own land, to 

 the exclusion of those countries which they have reason to believe were 

 connected at some early period with their own. 



It seems to me that persons of all countries, engaged in antiquarian 

 pursuits, would render them more advantageous to the archaeology of 

 each nation, if a more comprehensive spirit prevailed in the prosecution 

 of them. This was evidently the opinion of one of the most enlightened 

 English archseologists of his day — a man of truly liberal and enlarged 

 views, and of a lucid and comprehensive mind — the late Mr. J. M. 

 Kemble. At a meeting of the Royal Irish Academy, February 9, 1857, 

 Mr. Kemble delivered an address on the prosecution of antiquarian re- 

 searches and their results in various European countries, from which the 

 following passages are taken : — 



