A Practical Grammar of the Irish Language

A practical grammar of the Irish language. THREE years have elapsed sinec the Manuscript Copy of the following work was delivered to me by the Rev. Doctor O'RrieNj the Irish Professor in the College of Maynooth: All necessary arrangements were then made for its being immediately committed to press ; nay, so certain was I of being enabled in a short time to gratify the under-graduatcs of Maynooth, for whose particular use it was originally designed, and the lovers of Irish literature in general, that I actually announced, in my Catalogue, its speedy publication. All these dispositions were, however, rendered ineffectual by the interference of another work of indispensable necessity, and of peculiar difficulty in the execution, in which I had previously engaged. Thus was I, until the present time,' prevented from the publication of the Irish Grammar, a work in the publishing of which I considered my ambition somewiiat faltered, by being employed, even as an humble instrument, for facilitating the acquirement of the longneglected, yet venerable language of my forefathers ; a language which has the singular advantage of surviving centuries of cliscouragementj and being nozv acknowledged by philologcrs philologers as tlie purest branch of the Celtio now in exiétence, tind the matricular tongue of the Creek, Latin, and other European dialects.