Charles James O'Donnell, born 1850, provided a bequest in 1935 to fund an annual lecture in the National University of Ireland on the history of Ireland since the time of Cromwell, with particular reference to the histories, since 1641, of old Irish families. The lecture series was established in 1957 and continued more or less annually until 1986. Due to lack of funds there was a gap of some years, but the NUI Senate was pleased to be able to revive the series in 1998. It was decided that a lecture would be presented annually from 1999 onwards, in rotation, in each of the NUI Constituent Universities. This, the 30th lecture in the series, was delivered by Thomas Bartlett in May 2002 in University College Dublin - NUI. A graduate of Queen’s University Belfast, Thomas Bartlett lectured in History at NUI Galway before becoming Professor of Modern Irish History at UCD in 1995. He is a member of the Royal Irish Academy.