Excerpt from The Towers and Temples of Ancient Ireland: Their Origin and History Discussed From a New Point of View Archaeology has for the last thirty years engaged a great deal of public attention; and on no branch of this science has a larger amount of literary research been bestowed than on investigations respecting the distinctive Architecture and religious systems of ancient Ireland. Having from childhood taken an interest in Irish antiquities, I was led in the course of my studies to form opinions not in accordance with any of the commonly received theories; and the result has been the following work, now respectfully submitted to the Public as a contribution to the elucidation of certain problems in Irish history and archaeology, which have never been satisfactorily solved. I have furnished as "Introductory Remarks" a brief outline of the theory which I have undertaken to defend; and I have added a Glossary of Irish and Cuthite terms used throughout the work, with the authorities for the interpretations given to the words by me. These will materially assist the reader in his study of the subject. I have scrupulously avoided all technicalities and erudite expressions, such as would be intelligible only to the scientific student, so that it is hoped the book will be acceptable and instructive to the general reader. Residing as I do in a remote part of the country, my visits to available libraries have been necessarily few and brief, and some trifling errors in reference or quotation may have escaped my pen; but while craving the reader's indulgence for any such, I would remind him, that they do not in anywise invalidate the main arguments confirmatory of my theory. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."