In examining what seem to me to have been significant fields (or significant concentrations) of study in recent times, I wish to show how these have reacted on our conception of general history and how our very notion of the historian's universe has been undergoing a subtle transformation. In attempting to discuss some of the points where pressure has been exerted on historical study by war and international crisis, I wish to show how the very nature of history and the results of historical analysis prescrjbe to the historian his role when the momentous-ness of the contemporary world confronts him with claims and challenges. It will be useful to hold the figure of Lord Acton in the background, in order to measure the modern version of the human drama, and the modern view of the historian's function in the world, against the one which he so explicitly formulated.

In the rugged career of Michael Davitt, the document known as the ' pen ' letter is of far-reaching significance, both because of the malignant influence which it exerted and because of the revelation of his personality which its history affords.

The period 1461 to 1603 is crucial in the determination of the character of modern Irish history It divides fairly evenly at 1534 into a first phase in which the medieval order reaches its culmination and into a second in which the destruction of much of that order is completed and the foundations for the modern colonial period are laid. In the first, life in all its aspects is variegated with separate and interpenetrating social and governmental groupings of considerable complexity.

Under this heading we intend from time to time to publish articles dealing with work to be done on various periods and subjects of Irish historyWriters in the series are free to treat their respective sections in their-own way, and the articles will appear as they become available.