by catering !:>oJdy fur a cute.de ; however urU!:>tic it~ motivd. lt reve'aled that the science of history and archaeology, for its own sake, even in relation to County Donegal, could be best serived in the Jour.nai of the R\oyal Siocie~y ·Of AintiqUjaries, lris'h Historical Studies and TJhe Sword of the Military History Society of Ireland. A 1situdy of public opinion throughout the ·county revealed that eX!eessive zeal, on our part, for the preservation of relics and records of th8 pre-histori(c and historic 1pa.st ·w.ould not serve our wider ajms and objects unless 1we established tangible links of continuity with the historic present and future. Our first four issues made no attempt b prieser1Ve these topics of to-day ~which may make the history of to-morrow. In this misconcept of time, in relation to history, we were not alone .since 'a very large ,section of the masses in County Donegal are under the impression that, as a communrt:iy, they dropped out ·of 1the main current of Irish history with the Flight of 1the Earls ·and passed i.n~ .o a vacuum .after the Battle of Sc:arrifhollis. This. is refleoted in the writings of most of our Gaelic and Anglo Irish ,authors and journalists. (ShouLd we have said projected from instead of renected in ?) . .AJs matter.s stand it is our bounden duty to ~epa.ir (before it is too Iafe) a par,t, at leaist, of tJhe ya1wning g:2p between seventeenth century and '~wentieth icentury Counfy Donegal. As we are not reactionade1s we do not -advocate the ms~oration of such things as tribalism, which would be a1s futile ns the attempts, being made, Ito resus!cit'ate roy,alist Tara inside the wralls ·Of Viking and Anglo-' Norman Dublin while much more powerful forces are transforming the once sedate, cultured, Anglo Irish c4apital int:a a 1Shambles where economic expediency out~weighs every other aspect of life. Far be it from us to aidtd to a potpouri which has left our people with a muddled sense of Nationalism. Our work on the gap is not concerned with goverrno.rs and forms of g,overnment but with the ,governed .an1 we deprecate Vhe dis1appearance of iancient territorial loyalties through 'the flighti from the land since with each disappearance the stabilising influence of a 1priceless accumulation of family lore passes into oblivion. It would be ~perpetuation ,of our national weakness~self dece1p.Uon-w.ere we to leontinue to read cause and effect of this very g,rave social problem in terms of religious, political or economic ms. The first great exodus be.gan in the generation associ'.ated . with the chang,e over frcm Iri.sh to Er,.glish ; with its consequent break in tradition and its lack of suitable local history books to r1ep1ktce it. The so-called Great Famine and the I.~and vVar were coincidental-a fact not -appreciated by those who do not know that .famine and agrarian 1strife 1were two endemic diseases of eighteenth ·and early nineteenth century rural Ireland. Our strongest argument in support of this da'im will be obvious to any perison familiar 1with the root cnw·es of the P.rosbyteri'an mass emi;grations of 1ihe .eighteenth century which occured iat a time when an ever increasing Ccltir· Catholh·· population (suffering even gre2.ter social disabilitie1s) clnng steadfastly to the soil. ThA 287
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