Welcome to the UCD Library Cultural Heritage Collections blog. Discover and explore the historical treasures housed within our Archives, Special Collections, National Folklore Collection and Digital Library
In this post, we will look at a series of documents—not all contemporaneous—from different collections, which help us to build up an understanding of the events of Easter weekend, 1916. The choice of documents also illustrate some of the challenges faced by historians and researchers in working with archives. The documents I have chosen come …
Continue reading "“1 o’c left by tram for Howth with Jean.” 1916: a multiplicity of voices"
You never really know what you’re going to find on a shelf in the Special Collections store room. Most shelves are laden with antiquated books in shades of autumn: rich brown leather, letters picked out in gold, threads of red and gold, all square edged and standing to attention like soldiers in formation. But there …
Continue reading "Bound Without Restraint: Artists’ Books in UCD Special Collections"
Today is a small note on two items in Special Collections that both explore creativity,its challenges, and its beauty. The first is Jack B. Yeats' Modern Aspects of Irish Art(1922), (1.V.10/6) , and the second is the artist's book of Róisín Stack's performancepiece No Woman is an Island (2024), (W2.J.4/7). Modern Aspects of Irish Art …
Continue reading "Advice, Old and New: On Creation and Attention"
The Murphy Family Papers (UCDA P141) were deposited in UCDA in 1996. They concern several members of the Murphy family: Cornelius ('Conn', b.1869), his wife Annie Byrne, and their children, Annie Mary Constance ('Connie'), Kathleen, Feargus and Conn. Conn married Annie Byrne in 1895, and they settled in Rathgar. He was staunchly anti-Treaty and was …
In anticipation of the National Folklore Collection’s (NFC) relocation to UCD’s newly-built Cultural Heritage Centre in early 2027, we were brought in to help prepare some of the collection for this move. As students from UCD’s MA in Archives and Records Management, graduating in winter 2026, we were excited to put what we’ve learnt throughout …
As part of the unique relationship between UCD and the Irish Franciscans (UCD-OFM Partnership), UCD Archives curates many elements of the Franciscan manuscript patrimony. This process began with the transfer of the immensely significant collections of non-Franciscan private paper collections in 1997, including the papers of Eamon de Valera, Kathleen O’Connell, Seán MacEoin, George Gavan …
Continue reading "17th Century Irish Franciscan Manuscript Transferred to UCD Archives"
There is nothing quite like an old photograph, personal correspondence, or tangible artifact to get secondary students excited about learning history. It is easy for students to understand the human dimensions and historical significance of past events when they interact with sources of this nature. Unfortunately, primary source material is not always so exciting. Notable …
Continue reading "From Archive to Classroom: Creating a Workbook on the Downing Street Declaration"
A selection of Songs from UCD's Special Collections Reference was made to the poet MacDara Woods and the setting of his poetry to music at a concert in Dun Laoghaire’s Pavillion Theatre last December. This was a name I recognised having mentioned the poet’s name briefly in a previous blog post. The poet read his …
Continue reading "Waxing Lyrical: Songs, Poems & Singing in Special Collections"
Continuing our posts on small collections held in UCD Archives, we will look at an incomplete history of 'A' Company, 1st battalion, Dublin Brigade, IRA, for period 1914–23, written by Peadar McNulty. It is a standalone document in our collections but can be read against McNulty’s files which form part of the Military Service Pensions …
As of late, I’ve noticed the same fox walking by where I live each night. As I watched him go by, it brought me back to something, or rather someone, I had come across while creating an index for the Urban Folklore Project, as part of my work in the National Folklore Collection. The Urban …
Continue reading "Adolphus Cooke in the Urban Folklore Project"