Royal Society of Antiquaries

The Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland is a learned society based in Ireland, whose aims are 'to preserve, examine and illustrate all ancient monuments and memorials of the arts, manners and customs of the past, as connected with the antiquities, language, literature and history of Ireland'. Founded in 1849, it has a countrywide membership from all four provinces of Ireland. The affairs of the Society are conducted by the President, Officers and Council, whose services are entirely voluntary. Anyone subscribing to the aims of the Society, subject to approval by Council, may be elected to membership. Current and past members have included historians, archaeologists and linguists, but the Society firmly believes in the importance of encouraging an informed general public, and many members are non-professionals.

After the Society's move to Dublin in the 1890s, it came eventually to occupy the premises on Merrion Square, where it is still to be found. It now fulfills its original aims through the maintenance of its library and provision of lectures and excursions, as well as the continued publication of its Journal, which is one of the most respected publications in the field of Irish archaeology and history.

The Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland was founded in 1849 as the Kilkenny Archaeological Society, by a group of young men with archaeological and historical interests who were based in the Kilkenny area. The aim of the Society was the preservation and illustration of the antiquities of Kilkenny, city and county, although this later spread to cover a far wider area, with the Society changing its name only five years later to The Kilkenny and South East of Ireland Archaeological Society, both to attract wider membership and to reflect the interests of those who had already joined. By 1868 it had become the Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland, reflecting its exponential growth, partly due to the widespread circulation of its Journal. In 1869 it was granted a Royal Charter, and the right to elect Fellows, and in 1890 it moved to Dublin, changing its name to the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland as it took on what it saw as a national role, becoming in 1891, according to its Honorary Secretary Robert Cochrane: 'not only the largest Antiquarian Society in Great Britain and Ireland, but also the largest in the world'.

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