Ms. Rawlinson B 512, in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, contains a life of St. Brigit in Irish with numerous Latin phrases and passages interspersed. Some sections of this were edited and translated by Stokes in Lives of the Saints from the Book of Lismore, and the whole has been printed without translation, in Irish Texts, fasciculus i (ed. J. Fraser, P. Grosjean and J. G. O'Keeffe, 1931), under the title ‘Vita Brigitae’. I have preferred to call it the ‘Old Irish Life of St. Brigit’, as it is clear from the language of the text that it must have been compiled in the Old Irish period. The edition in Irish Texts is unfortunately disfigured by numerous mistranscriptions, faulty divisions of words and unnecessary conjectural emendations. My translation—a literal one—is based on this edition, corrected by reference to an excellent facsimile of the MS. which I owe to the kindness of the Oxford University Press. For convenience of reference, I have followed the division into sections of the printed text, though, as I shall point out in my notes, this is sometimes misleading.

Historians generally have accepted the view that the Irish kingdom of Connacht maintained an independent political existence until the death of Cathal Crovderg (1224). From the time of Henry II, however, individual Anglo-Norman adventurers cast envious glances at the broad lands ruled over by the house of O'Connor, and on more than one occasion in this period it seemed as if the foreigner would secure complete control of the province. An attempt will here be made to describe the successive endeavours to wrest their kingly power from the O'Connors before the death of Crovderg, and the circumstances which brought these to nothing.

Athough abundant evidence is available for the first few years of the Anglo-Norman invasion, the observance of due proportion in the ordinary textbook of Irish history usually precludes a detailed presentation of the progress of the invasion prior to the arrival of Henry II in 1171. As this has tended to obscure the real significance of the invasion, a careful analysis of the course of events in the years 1167-71 is called for.

The following list gives particulars of theses on Irish historical subjects, or on subjects having a distinct bearing on Irish history, which were successfully completed or were in progress for higher degrees in the universities of Ireland, Great Britain and the U.S.A. during 1937-8. For the Irish universities, the information has been supplied directly by the responsible supervisors; for the British universities, the editors have utilised the Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research: Theses Supplement, no. 6 (June 1938); for the American universities the List of Doctoral Dissertations in History now in progress at American Universities, December 1937 (Carnegie Institution of Washington, Division of Historical Research, 1938). The editors of these publications have kindly given permission for the reprinting of relevant information.

Particulars of omissions in the list and suggestions for enlarging its scope would be welcomed.