One  further  point  needs  to  be  dwelt  upon — the  non-
inclusion  of  works  of  fiction  written  in  the  Irish  language.  I
cannot  do  better  in  this  connection  than  quote  from  the  preface
to  a  former  work*  in  which  this  same  point  came  up  for  ex-
planation : — "  I  have  not  included  books  in  the  Irish  language.
My  reasons  for  this  are  threefold.  In  the  first  place  my  own
knowledge  of  Irish  is  not  yet  sufficient  to  enable  me  even  to
edit  satisfactorily  notes  of  books  in  Irish  ....  In  the
second  place  I  do  not  think  that  a  bibliography  of  works  in
Irish  should  be  made  a  mere  appendage  or  sub -section,  as  it
would  inevitably  be,  of  a  work  such  as  the  present.  Lastly,
it  may  well  be  doubted  whether  the  time  be  yet  come  for  doing
this  work  in  the  way  that  it  deserves  to  be  done."  This  last
reason  is  partly  based  on  the  fact  of  the  great  mass  of  Irish
literature  still  remaining  in  MS.,  a  quantity  probably  much
greater  than  what  has  been  printed  and  published.  The  pub-
lication of  the  National  Library's  bibliography  is  mentioned
in  the  Appendix  on  Gaelic  literature  as  an  additional  reason  for
my  omission  of  books  in  Irish.
Nevertheless,  the  omission  of  books  in  the  Irish  language
from  a  Guide  to  Irish  Fiction  remains  an  anomaly,  one  of  the
many  anomalies  produced  by  the  historic  causes  that  have  all
but  destroyed  the  Irish  language  as  the  living  speech  of
Ireland.
DUBLIN,  September,  1915.
*  A   Guide  to  Books  on  Ireland,   Part  I.   (Hodges  &   Figgis),   1912.
PREFACE    TO   A   READERS    GUIDE   TO
IRISH   FICTION   (1910).
