O'Curry's great work "On the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish" is a mine of information for the archæological scholars of all times and nations; as are the works of Dr. Petrie, Prof. Sullivan, Dr. P. W. Joyce, Lady Wilde, Prof. Whitley Stokes, and others.
It may be well to say here that a wonderfully interesting collection of the ancient weapons, mentioned in this article, may be seen in Ireland.
twenty-four thousand two hundred and fifty-five pounds, and in Irishmen from seventeen thousand three hundred and twenty-five to twenty-seven thousand five hundred and sixty-two pounds. I have no reason to doubt that these figures represent the existing conditions of these respective populations. Those experiments were carefully made at the time, and the results were as given."
Sir John Davies, an eminent Englishman, who was Attorney-General of Ireland in 1616, in his "Historical Tracts," says, "The bodies and minds of the Irish people are imbued with extraordinary abilities by nature."At the present day the most famous athletes of the world are of Irish birth or extraction. They hold the highest places on record in almost every branch of athletic sport, both amateur and professional. Bicycle-riding alone seems to be the athletic exercise least attractive to men of the Irish race, at least in America; though Con. Dwyer, an Irishman, is the champion amateur bicycle-rider of all the Australasian colonies.In swimming, for one hundred and five hundred yards, J. Haggerty, an Irishman, beat Chas. Beckwith in London, in May, 1887, and won the world's championship. The best under-water swimmer in the world is T. W. Reilly, who won the championship at Stockport, England, in July, 1887; in