‘History is defined as a prose narrative of past events, as probably true as the fallibility of human testimony will allow. it is not a poetic narrative, for poetry appeals to the imagination [...] ought to be a living narrative [...] biography of a nation [...] attained some degree of civilisation [Prof. Freeman cited]; its social life [...] everyday life of the castle and the cabin; [87] every many loves, or ought to love, his own land best of all.
 In pagan Ireland the Druids had well nigh a monopoly of learning [...] chronology, antiquities and genealogies [88] Feis of Tara [...] Christian annals, historical tracts, and lives of saints [...] destruction which overwhelmed bardic and monastic schools during the Danish wars [destroyed] large proportion of books [...] Adamnan’s Life of Columba; Book of Leinster; Book of Ballymote; Book of Lecain; Leabhar Breac; Lives of Saints; after Clontarf zeal for historical composition returned; Annals of Tighernach; [90] Anglo-Normans evil times came, and if Fitzgerald and De Burgo plundered the Irish of their properties Gerald Barry [Giraldus Cambrensis] robbed, or attempted to rob, them of their character [...] even Irish saints subject to their ridicule and sneers; Statutes of Kilkenny [91] plantations, broken treaty of Limerick, penal laws [...] sow seeds of bitterness and hate in Catholic minds; Protestants on their side recalled alliance of Irish Catholics with Spain, proscriptions of James II’s Parliament, and more than all, the Protestant lives lost and Protestant property destroyed in the rebellion of 1641.
 History written under the influence of such bitter recollections is nothing more than an advocate’s plea; Moryson, Davies, Spenser and Camden in footsteps of Gerald Barry; Keating, a Catholic priest and persecuted outlaw, not likely in such circumstances to be impartial; John Lynch on the same side had a higher sense of what history should be; but, after all, his real object in writing was not so much to write impartial history as to confound Gerald Barry [...] did prove the Welsh priest to be a defamer who foully calumniated Ireland and her people; Leland [...] the dawn of toleration [...] reflected in his writings [91] had not the learning of his co-religionist Usher, but neither had be his fierce intolerance; every lover of learning will regret [...] that Usher’s extraordinary abilities and extraordinary learning were so grievously disfigured by the worst prejudices of his time; in the pages of Magegohegan [...] toleration appears; softening down of race hatred [...] mid eighteenth c. received fatal check from rebellion of 1798.

Emancipation; Established Church [...] reproduced passions [...] O’Connell [...] to Catholics greatest of all Irish leaders, to London Times the big beggarman, foul-mouthed calumniator of England [...] even Lecky doubts whether his services to Ireland were a blessing or a curse [92] [...] occasional outburst from nationalist platforms [...] oratory of Ulster Hall and Sandy Row and the loud beats of the Orange drums; first thing to be sought for is the truth, and we must have the whole truth; archaeologists Mr Coffey and Prof. Macalister [...] must wring their secrets from our ancient monuments [...] a university named National [...] must aim at doing patriotic work; Irishmen with English names must cease to copy libels of Gerald Barry [Giraldus Cambrensis]; the air they breathe is Irish, Irish blood, &c; those with purely Irish names ought cease upbraiding the man with an English [93];

Protestant seeking truth will discover as Lecky did that there was no organised massacre in 1641; condemn Cromwellian Settlement and massacres of Drogheda and Wexford; inherent defects of Grattan’s Parliament; why the famine came, read Thomas Drummond and study the Devon Commission Report; agrarian war too recent [but note] value of contemporary historian; [cites Lord Acton on knowledge of history as ingredient of character and the future]; no finality in Irish written history [or] [95] the land acts; historical judgement will need to be revised; not a prophet [but] there will be in Ireland a great softening of ancient prejudice and fictional zeal [...] common ground; co-religionists of Usher [to learn that] the illuminated books admiration of the world; learning in dark ages attracted foreign scholars; Catholic in bondage will gratefully learn that it was a Protestant leader who fought for him [...] helped to break his chains; persecution does not generate conviction; battlefield [...] opposing creeds [...] gallant charge [...] heroic resistance [...] brave men fell as brave men ought; At a time when our race at home is sadly dwindled I can see no nobler vision than this - that all Irishmen would come together to build up after so much has been pulled down, and thus to shape a better and brighter future for Ireland, guided by the knowledge and warned by the experience of the past. [END; see Guinan, q.v.]