The honour which the R.M.P.A. has bestowed on me fills me with a mixture of pride and apprehension; pride that I occupy the Chair where have sat so many distinguished psychiatrists and apprehension lest I might be unequal to the task of upholding the noble traditions of my predecessors. In offering you my thanks and appreciation I wish to express my most devout hope that I will prove worthy of the mantle you have placed on my shoulders and pass it on to my successors untarnished. It is pleasant to think that the Irish Division of the R.M.P.A. has held such a long and happy relationship with its Royal parent and that in the field of psychological medicine there has been no cleavage between the Sassenach and the Gael. I am proud to be the figurehead which expresses that unity today.