Alexis de Tocqueville visited Ireland in the company of his good friend Gustave de Beaumont in July and August of 1835. Tocqueville was welcome everywhere, in the mansions of the Protestant bishops and in the simple homes of priests whom he accompanied on their rounds through their parishes. His visits to the poorhouse, the university, the site of the Assizes, and the Office of the Clerk of the Crown of Ireland are among the recorded visits and impressions of his journey. He recorded conversations in their entirety. He made clear notes on what he saw and heard and often on his reactions. The diary and the letters that he wrote to his family about his visit to Ireland provide a rare insight into one of the seminal minds of the ninetieth century. Emmet Larkin was a professor at the University of Chicago.