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New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVIII, Issue 15, 8 August 1890, Page 11

If an illustration were wanted ('says Truth) of tbe very small amount of information which is evea yet pjs^essel in this countiy concerning Ireland, it would bi found in the very sliphc attention whici the death of Professor Sullivan, of thi> Queen's Col ege, Cork has attractei in England. Mr. £. Suldvan was in truth a most remarkable man — a man of great intellectual power and most multiftnous and varied accomplishment, scientific, literary, archaeological, and above all phi ological. His most considerable achievement was his " Introduction" to O'Curry's "Lectures on the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish." Perhaps it would have been better if the " Introduction " had been published not by way of Introduction but as a separate work, ladeed it certainly would, for as it stands its tendency is rather to overlay and bury the lectures, and, of course, great as are Mr. K. Sullivan's merits, they cannot for a moment compare with O'Curry's. Still tbe "Introduction " was a very great work. It was dedicated to Dr. (now Cardinal) Newman. By the way, it is a fact worth noting that co far as Irish archaeology and the Gaelic language are concerned, Ireland owes to two Englishmen more than she owes to any of her own sons. It is to Bishop Bedell, an Essex man, that we are indebted for the Irish translation of the Bible, and to Cariinal Newman, as Rector of tbe Catholic University, we are indebted for O'Ourry's lectures. The Catholic University wa», indeed, an ill-fated institution but I thoroughly agree with the Nation that Newman's pitronage of O'Curry waa quite enough to atone for a good many more mistakes than attended that educational experiment,