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JAMES DUFFY, 15, WELLINGTON-QUAY;
LONDON: 22, PATERNOSTER-ROW.

1864.

DUBLIN:

Printed by J. M. O'Toole and Son,

6 & 7, GT. BRUNSWICK-STREET.

TO THE

VENERABLE CHAPTER AND THE CATHOLIC CLERGY,

Secular and Regular,

OF THE

DIOCESE OF DUBLIN.

HAVING completed, after long and careful researches, the first volume of the History of the Catholic Archbishops of Dublin since the Reformation, I take the liberty of dedicating it to you, as a proof of my profound respect and veneration for the virtues and merits by which you are distinguished—virtues and merits which may be considered as hereditary, having been handed down to you by your illustrious predecessors in the ministry, who laboured so assiduously for the preservation of religion, and contributed so largely to the triumph of the true faith in Ireland, thus securing for our country a name glorious among the Catholic nations of the earth.

During the period treated of in the part of the first volume now about to appear, the ancient church of Dublin passed through the most trying ordeal and suffered the severest persecutions, whilst at the same time it was deprived of the protection and guidance of legitimate chief pastors; but, through the zeal and devotedness of the Metropolitan Chapter and Clergy,

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