THIS is the fourth edition of the Landed Gentry of Ireland. The preceding editions were dated 1899, 1904 and 1912. Before 1899 Irish families were included in Burke's Landed Gentry of the United Kingdom but the growth of the latter volume made it essential that a new volume should be produced. The separate volumes of Irish Landed Gentry attained a considerable celebrity and value, and it was with great regret that the publishers for many years felt unable to produce a successor to the 1912 edition. Fortunately what had been regarded as an axiom in genealogical publishing-that the Landed Gentry of Ireland could not again be brought out-has been proved completely incorrect. The present edition compares very favourably in size with its 1912 predecessor, and if the number of families treated in the following pages is compared with the number included in the 1912 issue, it will be seen that the present volume is in fact much larger than any earlier edition. Not only have the 46 years between 1912 and 1958 made necessary a great enlargement of vital particulars of all families included, but family historians have shown the greatest desire to bring out of their archives numerous details of historical interest which were never before included in any edition of Burke. Research has grown much keener and greater than ever before and many of the old accounts have been recast to the advantage of families concerned whose histories are now taken much further back. There cannot be any family whose record appears both in 1912 and in 1958 and whose history is now shorter. The number of families included is much smaller, and this is accounted for partly by natural disappearance of old landed families from the Irish scene, partly by inability to obtain information from many of those to whom we wrote, and also-and this must be added-from the fact that had all those whose papers were received been included, the present volume would have taken so long to produce that its final publication would not have been an economic proposition. In this connection it is hoped to produce either another edition of the work in a few years time or to edit a second volume containing the histories of families whom it has been impossible to include in the present work. We expect that many of those who failed to respond to our requests for information will explain to us about their non-inclusion in the 1958 edition; a curious phenomenon which is by no means confined to families of Irish extraction.

Arms are illustrated in these pages at the expense of those who own them. For over a generation it was the practice in Burke volumes and still is in the Peerage, to include an illustration of arms without any charge to the bearer of them. The older practice in Burke was to charge for the illustration of arms and we have been compelled by the continually rising costs in the publishing business to revert to this practice. As it is impossible to have a drawing prepared and a block made for much less than £2 l0s. 0d. to £3, it will be appreciated that where some hundreds of arms illustrations-and thousands in the case of the current (1952) Landed Gentry of Great Britain-are involved, the additional item in costs could be a severe burden. As to the description of arms, we have again reverted to earlier usage and have given arms in every case where they are in use, unless some fantastic anomaly would thereby have been caused, irrespective of whether or not they were registered. To have adopted a rigid orthodoxy in the case of Irish arms would have been contrary to the conditions under which Irish heraldry has developed. It was always easier to obtain a confirmation of arms on user in Ireland than in England, and, many cases will be found in these pages of confirmations of arms borne for long periods in Ireland without registration at Ulster Office. All those who use arms have been asked by the Editor to give the dates and places of registration if any. A surprisingly small number have compiled with this request. The Editor has endeavoured to repair this indifference but in many cases has not succeeded and in consequence many families whose arms have been recorded must be content to be thought not to have done so and to be classed with those equally worthy families whose arms are in use but are not registered. It will be observed that place of registration of arms includes not only Ulster Office, and the present Genealogical Office at Dublin Castle under the rule of the Chief Herald of Ireland, but also the Lyon Office, and the College of Arms. (The illustrations have in the great majority of cases been prepared by Mr. William J. Hill.)

This last mentioned fact brings out the various strains which go to make up the present Landed Gentry of Ireland. To do justice to Irish genealogy would require a volume on its own, but certain aspects of the matter had to be carefully considered when the present work was in contemplation. During recent years English, Welsh and Scottish Pedigrees have been very carefully overhauled and investigated, in both the Peerage and the Landed Gentry, and a great effort has been made to show that a country's genealogy is determined by the circumstances of its history. The waves of invaders and settlers in Ireland from the times of Strongbow until the present have each brought their own genealogical background with them, and then have added the peculiar characteristics of Irish records. But behind all these waves stands the original Celtic stock of Ireland which produced her great septs. No real effort had ever been made, with all respect to previous editors, to grapple with the Hibernian or Milesian pedigrees. Merely to dismiss them as outlandish and laughable is if anything worse than to accept them without question. Careful scholarly attention to these most interesting stories has been given in modern Ireland, and while a great deal no doubt remains to be done, sufficient light can be seen to enable the compiler to form a clear judgment. The special article at the beginning of this volume by Prof. David Greene of Trinity College, Dublin will do much to clarify the reasons for the handling of many of the traditional pedigrees in the present edition. The fact which emerges very clearly is that with regard to the greatest of the native Irish families, their pedigrees are hardly to be equalled in length in western Europe.

It is hardly necessary to specify the other introductory articles which appear in the present edition as their titles speak for themselves.

The Editor wishes to thank all those who have kindly contributed information on their own and other families; they may at times have felt that much of their information has not been used, but it should be explained that considerations of space alone would make the use of all the material supplied impossible, quite apart from the fact that there is a style in the composition of Burke which excludes certain types of material. The Editor records his appreciation of the assistance given by all the official bodies which have been so helpful in the preparation of the plans for the work; the Irish Embassy in London; the Genealogical Office, Dublin Castle; the National Library of Ireland; the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland; the Irish Genealogical Research Society; by all branches of the Irish Press for their ready co-operation in giving notice to the production of the new edition; and by his Assistant Editor, Mr. K. P. Townend, who has worked with him throughout the preparation of the volume.