Following the Easter Rising in 1916, Éamon de Valera was imprisoned first, in Mountjoy jail and then, following the commutation of his death sentence, in four English prisons — Dartmoor, Lewes, Maidstone, and Pentonville. He was released under the general amnesty in 1917. Among his papers are a series of Christmas cards sent to him … Continue reading Nodlaig Shona Duit: Christmas Cards from 1916
This blogpost was originally supposed to be about our acetate disc digitisation and publication project as we near its end but after the launch of our latest and last (for a while) batch of acetate discs at this year’s Oireachtas na Samhna festival, it was clear that the festival itself was the real story. With … Continue reading Oireachtas na Samhna: a Celebration of our Cultural Heritage
The Henry Roe Room / Christ Church Cathedral Music Room (SC.Arch.W 726.6 STR) In the introduction to A History of Music at Christ Church Cathedral Dublin reference is made to cathedrals having a place in the social and cultural lives of cities. An example of this occurred last May. People assembled in the Henry Roe Room, formed a choir … Continue reading Towards a millennium: sources for researching Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin at UCD’s Special Collections
In this post, I will use two sets of papers to illustrate how a researcher can trace an issue across more than one collection. Both the papers of Eoin MacNeill and of Liam S. Gógan include correspondence with Julius Pokorny concerning Pokorny’s dismissal from the Chair of Celtic Philology at the University of Berlin, under … Continue reading “Only pure Aryans…can be citizens”: letters concerning Julius Pokorny and the racist Nuremberg Laws of 1935
The Irish Folklore Commission, in its aim to collect and preserve the folklore of Ireland, placed huge trust and responsibility on its full-time collectors, some of whom remained in the employment of the Commission for many years. The Commission was also reliant on part-time collectors and questionnaire correspondents to capture aspects of tradition from areas … Continue reading Collections and Connections: The Irish Folklore Commission in Co. Mayo
A notable aspect of private paper collections, is how a person features as a thread that runs through the tapestry of a collection. We have explored this before in our post about the death of W.B. Yeats, although here it may be more intentional, as some of the correspondents’ thoughts about Macnamara are being sought … Continue reading Threads…
A visit to the National Folklore Collection isn’t quite like a visit to other libraries or archives. As you enter, the door creaking gently behind you, you’re met with a certain feeling of history and possibility. It’s a feeling that you can’t quite put your finger on, but a distinct one nonetheless. Once inside you’re … Continue reading ‘Stories through art: The Eviction by Lady Elizabeth Butler’
In part one of this post, we looked at a file in Josephine McNeill’s papers concerning her husband, James McNeill, governor-general of the Irish Free State. The office of governor-general was viewed with suspicion by many as a symbol of continued British involvement in Irish affairs, and it was disliked and downgraded in importance by … Continue reading “A considered policy”: the Governor General and Éamon de Valera (Part 2)
Harriet Hjort by Anna Riwkin (1908-1970) © Anna Riwkin/Moderna Museet, FM 1981 032 2518 Scholarship links between Ireland and Scandinavia in the field of folklore are too numerous to mention, but suffice it to say that in 1921, undergraduate Séamus Ó Duilearga met Norwegian Reidar Christiansen by chance in a Dublin book shop, and this … Continue reading Harriet Hjorth Wetterström (1908-1977) : IRLANDSKUST – A Swedish Book About Coastal Life in 1940s Ireland
This year marks the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Irish Franciscan college in Rome. St. Isidore’s College (Collegio S. Isidoro) started its task of training Franciscans for the Irish mission in 1625. The anniversary has been an occasion of celebration, not only by the Franciscan order (Order of Friars Minor, O.F.M) in Rome, … Continue reading Four centuries of St Isidore’s : The legacy of Fr Luke Wadding, Franciscan scholar, and founder of the Irish Franciscan College in Rome