Liverpool, who suggested to me the subject of this dissertation, and whose great knowledge of Irish has always been at my disposal. He has also been so kind as to read through the proofs of the book, and to make many important corrections.
I have further to record my sincere thanks to Professor Thurneysen of Freiburg i./B., and Professor Zimmer of Berlin, both of whom read a considerable part of the manuscript, and made many valuable suggestions. To the work of these scholars in the department of Irish philology I have in the course of the book often referred. As the present volume was in the hands of the printer before the former’s “Handbuch des Alt-irischen” appeared, the references to this invaluable book are much fewer than would otherwise have been the case.
Last, but not least, I wish to express my very especial thanks to Dr. E. C. Quiggin, of Caius College, Cambridge, who has read carefully through nearly the whole of the manuscript and all the proofs, making several important corrections and suggestions.
I have also to thank Professor Tout for kindly taking charge, on the part of the Publication Committee of the University of Manchester, of the printing of the thesis, and for his solicitude for the success of the work.
I have further to thank the authorities of the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, and of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, for their kindness in placing the MSS. of the Annals at my disposal.
Whilst thanking the above-mentioned for a good deal of valuable aid ungrudgingly given, I deem it my duty to state that, for the general accuracy of the work and for any theories put forward, I am alone responsible.
Galway, July, 1910.
