16 DECEMBER 1955, Page 26

THE ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY. By Terence de Vere White, (The

Kerryman, 21s.) IT is a little difficult to understand why this history, which adds little to what was already known of the RDS, should have been con- sidered necessary: and still harder to under- stand why Mr. White, with a couple of admir- able biographies behind him, should have agreed to write it. As a peg on which to hang a social history of Ireland, or a consideration of the place of the Anglo-Irish in Irish history, the story of the Society might have been valuable; but this straightforward account of its activities