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This First Edition of "Thom's Irish Who's Who" contains life sketches of upwards of 2,500 Irish men and women, at home and overseas, who are conspicuous in the Nation's History, and includes leaders of thought and action in all fields of enlightenment and civilization.

Neither labour nor expense has been spared in an effort to make the book as authoritative as possible, but no claim is made to completeness. The difficulties that confront the Editor of a volume of this description are much greater than may appear to a casual observer. In the first place there is always present the desire to avoid invidious selection, and in the second, the danger of omitting, through oversight, names whose absence might naturally occasion surprise.

This applies especially, and for obvious reasons, to a First Edition, and therefore we issue this publication with an apology for errors which are unavoidable, and of whose existence we are unaware. We cordially invite the cooperation of the Irish Public everywhere, in enabling us in subsequent editions to correct such errors of omission or commission as we may have unwittingly made. Our aim is to make this Directory complete, and to enable the wayfarer or the scientific inquirer to discover immediately and without inconvenience "Who's Who" in the homeland and abroad. When it is borne in mind that the sun never sets on Ireland's sons and daughters, it will be apparent that such co-operation as we invite is vitally important.