“We wonder (he says on p. 267) how many of Mrs. Green’s readers
are aware that of this book, from which she has gleaned so much
information--of a sort--only one copy, so far as we know, is accessible
to the public, and that is in the MSS. Department of the British
Museum. The book, we understand, was never published. It is still
incomplete. The official copy consists merely of the bound sheets as
they were printed off for proof.”
I suppose Mr. Dunlop does not mean to suggest that the value of a book
is in proportion to the number of copies, or that an authority of which
a single copy exists should not be quoted. In any case I can reassure
him. The sheets of this _Catalogue_ have been these many years past for
sale to the public at the Museum, where I got my copy, and I hope many
others did the same. The book can be bought in a London shop to-day.
Mr. Dunlop might consult it in the London Library. The copy placed in
the National Library in Dublin in 1895 has been in frequent use since
then. Possibly Mr. Dunlop knows the inside of the book better than the
outside, but it seems to be a new acquaintance, suddenly introduced and
viewed with distaste. In this brilliant _Catalogue_ we have the work of
a very great authority, unsurpassed in his special learning, far beyond
what O’Donovan could lay claim to; with its “information--of a sort--”
it is the most important book that has appeared for many years with
regard to Irish history. Another critic of Mr. Dunlop’s school, who in
his remarks gives no definite sign of any knowledge of Mr. O’Grady’s
work, has reproached me for referring to it “without further sifting.”
But it is certain that neither of these writers who reprove me will
themselves do much “further sifting” where that admirable scholar has
gone before them.
May I add that Mr. Dunlop does not appear to follow too closely modern
studies on Irish affairs, or he would surely have known of Mr. Justice
Madden’s _Classical Learning in Ireland_, published last summer--a
little book which he should certainly have been willing to include in
any review of recent Irish writings?
To return, however, to my own lamentable want of candour and accuracy,
I now give a few of the instances of my deficiencies, and of the
admirable example which Mr. Dunlop sets me in these respects.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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