Transcriber’s Note
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WAKEMAN’S
HAND-BOOK OF IRISH ANTIQUITIES.
WAKEMAN’S HANDBOOK OF
IRISH ANTIQUITIES
THIRD EDITION
By JOHN COOKE, M.A. (Dub.),
FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF IRELAND;
EDITOR OF ‘MURRAY’S HANDBOOK FOR IRELAND.’
DUBLIN:
HODGES, FIGGIS, & CO., Ltd.
LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
MCMIII.
iiiPrinted by Ponsonby & Gibbs, University Press, Dublin.
PREFACE.
It was not without hesitation that I undertook,at the request of the proprietors andpublishers, the task of revising the previousedition of this work. To enter upon thewide field of Irish archæology I thought noeasy task; but it was all the more difficult,to my mind, from a sense of the qualificationsrequired for revising the work of one who was anacknowledged authority on the subject. Every studentof Irish archæology is well aware of the extent of thevaluable contributions, by pen and pencil, of the lateMr. W. F. Wakeman to our knowledge of that subject,to the study of which he devoted the whole ofhis long life. That his ‘Handbook’ so quickly grewout of date, and that a revision was thus renderednecessary, is due, partly to the results of the stimulusivgiven to the students of the present generation bythe school of archæology to which he belonged; butmore especially to the work of British and Europeanarchæologists, and the general application of the comparativemethod of treatment to the whole field ofarchæological science.
I found on entering on the work of revision thatthe book required much in the way of recension, butstill more in the way of addition. While adhering tothe general plan and spirit of the book, and retainingas much as possible of Mr. Wakeman’s work, I havemade changes in the arrangement which I thoughtadvisable, and enlarged the scope of the book, so that,as far as possible, it might cover the w