The question ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ might be more aptly posed in Ireland as ‘Who Do You Belong To?’ A curious query for those unaccustomed to native norms but this is a common refrain in many local communities, where you are known as much by your lineage as by your own fame (or …
Mother, Father and Ideal Friend
'Walter has been Mother, Father and ideal friend to me. I could not have lived through those days of stress without his unexampled care and princely hospitality.' During the Treaty debates in 1922 these words were spoken by Arthur Griffith to H.E. Kenny about his dear friend, Alderman Walter Leonard Cole. Not long after, on …
Bring on the Final!
The finalists of the Blog Awards Ireland 2018 have just been announced and..... WE MADE IT!!!! We are so delighted and honoured to have made it through to the finals of both the Arts & Culture and Education & Science categories, that we burst into a dance in the office... The awards will take place on …
A Medical Marvel
UCD Library Special Collections has just completed the cataloguing of a major new W. B. Yeats Collection that it received as a donation in 2015. The interest of the collection stems not only for its contents, but also from the story of how it was gathered together and how it reached UCD Library. From the …
On the Shortlist!!
We have made the Blog Awards 2018 Short List, how fantastic! We have been lucky enough to be short listed in both the Arts & Culture and Education & Science categories. And what amazing company we have in both categories; blogs about Irish mythology to art to cartoons to travelling around Ireland's coast to dabbling in words …
What’s in a word?
How often do we take the time to consider the words we use to communicate? What do they reveal about our own history, and cultural heritage? Can one dialectical nuance yield all our secrets? There is a little-known collection within the National Folklore Collection UCD that seeks to shed some light on these complex questions. …
We’ve been Nominated!!
UCD Library Cultural Heritage Collections blog has been long listed in the Blog Awards Ireland 2018. Yippee!!! With over 2,000 entries we were nominated in two categories; Best Arts & Culture Blog and Best Education & Science Blog. To read all the amazing blogs that were nominated in 29 hugely diverse categories click here. So …
For the Love of Letters
Theobald Wolfe Tone Dillon was born in 1898 and was known as Theo. He was the second son of John Dillon (1851–1927), land agitator and nationalist politician, and grandson of James Blake Dillon (1816–66), founder of The Nation in 1842. His mother, Elizabeth Mathew, was a grand-niece of Fr Theobald Mathew of the temperance movement. …
The Poor Law Commission
'The cabin generally of the most miserable description, the furniture corresponding. The bed, a small quantity of straw and an indifferent blanket; sheets none.’ Thus James Kirwan Esq. J.P. describes the housing, furnishings and bedding in the parish of Tuam, Co Galway in 1836 in answer to a questionnaire sent out by the Royal Commission …
Ring My Bell!
It is often that we come across noteworthy cases and anecdotes of unknown origin here in the National Folklore Collection. They demonstrate the unique character of the collection as well as the extensive and often surprising work undertaken by it’s predecessors. If you wander into the Tierney building on the UCD campus, from the corner …
