⁶''Donovan, John, and Eugene O'Curry. Letters Containing Information Relative to the Antiquities of the County of Clare, Collected during the Progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1839. Ed. Michael O'Flanagan. Bray, 1927.
Here is the full text of O'Donovan's statement, from a letter dated December 4th, 1839:
"What are we then to think of etymological investigators? They can take words asunder as they please, and give to each component part whatever meaning will best answer the historical theory to be established! Nothing amuses me more than the barefaced effontery with which they urge their silly conjectures as valuable truths, and there is no class of men I hold in greater contempt than those who attempt to build a false system of history on their own etymological speculations. I respect O'Brien's learning, but I laugh at his knowledge of Irish history and topography; I despise Vallancey as having no definite knowledge at all, for having published in his own name the MS., productions of others, and for having forged originals and given garbled and false translations of genuine historical documents...
The etymological antiquists of the last century have attempted to erect a visionary fabric of history with materials derived from false derivations of words, and I think it my duty to do my utmost to pull down their foolish systems, convinced that no nation ever derived honor from any history but that which is demonstratively true."