EDITORIAL ''THE PAST IS PROLOGUE ,, MEM.BEtRS ·and fri~nds. of t~e Count~ Don~gal Historical . Society will, •we hope, ·fmd in this, the first, issue of The Doneg·al Annua;l a wide variety of inter·esting articles, notes, and features in keeping with the aims and objects of our Society. For t1his reason we feel justified in maintaining continuity wit:1 our previous publications. The Donegal Annual, 1951, is therEf ore the first number of volume two of the Journal of the County Donegal Historical Society. , The decic:.;ion to 1cater for a wide.r range of readers w2cs taken by your Ex,ecutivs Committee after 1careful consideration of the vicissitudes ·which attended our first four publications. We were for2ed to conclude that, unless drastic changes were made, printing costs, attenuat.ed s·ales, .and precarious member.ship, would create a situation where our Journal would cease to be an Annual and bec.Jme a sporadic publication. An analysis of these, unfavourable conditions showed ti\at it is _ in~iperative for us to ·emphasise that no blame can be attached to our printer,s and publishers. \Vould th'at we could as readily exonerate uther factors in the book triade? \Ve have, therefore, no hesitation in calling attention to ihe arbitrary manner in \\thich Journals, su;ch as ours, ar.e ignored, even to the extent of non-.a~knowledgment of reviEJw copie.s, by certain Literary Eciitor.s and Editors of the metropolitan and loc'al press. Our treatm~nt by a nation wide rnonopolistirc book distribution firm wns even worse and has caused us to t1ake a very ;poor i\Tiew of the fact th!at literature relating to . the county i1s absent from the windows and icount2r3 of its book.stalls throughout Donegal. (Tourist and Devebpmer.t Ass1ociations please note !) . 1\Vith obstacles such as these the wonder is that ·we were <>.blre to <Hspos·~ of so many of our Journo.ls. Fo.r this we must th•ank the hard working agents of "The Derry Journal," and "The Don~gal Demor;rat,' ; and also the Editors of "lrish Historical Studies" whos2 reviews '.and notices brnug1ht us orders from as far away as New Zealand. ln fairness to all corncerned we, too, 1must confess to faults and flaw:s. Healthy self-icriticism ha·s made it evident th1at the preservation and difl\1sion of our County's hist9ry could not be realised 286
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