These cousins had had an interest in Kilkenny antiquities from their youngest days, when they had rambled as far afield as Kilfane Church to see the famous tomb sculpture of Cantwell Fada.
Graves had been making sketches of the ancient monasteries of the vicinity since his student days in Trinity College Dublin in the 1830s, while Prim had found time despite his hectic schedule at the 'Kilkenny Moderator' to start collecting Irish ballads and transcribing from medieval manuscripts as early as 1841.
The Society's foundation was no doubt influenced by the general revival of interest in ancient Irish antiquities and history which the Ordnance Survey had sparked off.
As superstitious beliefs died out, people became less cautious of destroying the field monuments such as raths and stone circles, which hitherto had been avoided in cultivation of the land.
However, with the passing of the Church Temporalities Act in 1869, many of these structures came to be vested in the Board of Works, which then took over the duty of conserving them, appointing Thomas Newenham Deane Inspector of National Monuments in March 1875.
[3] This relieved the Society of its responsibilities in active preservation of buildings, although it continued to participate by drawing the Board's attention to individual cases.