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
The writer Mary Lavin (1912-1996) was born in East Walpole, Massachusetts to Irish parents Thomas and Nora Lavin, and moved to Ireland as a child. Her first short story was written on the reverse of a draft of her PhD thesis on Virginia Woolf, and she went on to become a prolific and celebrated author, …
Continue reading "Mary Lavin: An insight into the creative process"
Most of us have at one time or another been unlucky enough to experience some unpleasant illness or ailment which lays us low. Thankfully, our recoveries from such infirmities are in the main, rapid and full. In days gone by however, and prior to the arrival of the flu-jab, our forebears had to resort to …
The papers of Ernie O’Malley, the Irish revolutionary and writer who immortalised the tumultuous Irish period of 1916–21 in his book On Another Man’s Wound, have been deposited in UCD Archives for well over forty years. Cormac O’Malley, Ernie’s son, initially transferred these papers under the terms of the O’Malley Trust, established in September 1974. …
On October 13th 2019, Cardinal John Henry Newman, first rector of the Catholic University of Ireland, will be canonised in Rome. The Catholic University of Ireland (CUI) was opened in 1854 and it is from this institution that University College Dublin traces its origins. The CUI was established as a result of opposition from the …
With summer a distant memory, and the harvest period having drawn to a close, Hallowe’en (All Hallows Eve) or Oíche Shamhna was considered a turning point in the traditional calendar year. Cattle were brought from summer pastures to fields closer to the family homestead, and corn, apples, turnips and potatoes were all harvested and stored …
With the GAA All Ireland just over and the Rugby World Cup about to start, sport is on our mind! So where will we look to for our next sports kick (excuse the pun!)? But to soccer and our Boys in Green of course! The records of the Football Association of Ireland are housed in …
Few people need to be convinced about the magnificence of ancient and modern Rome, but for almost two hundred years the magnificence of the eighteenth-century engraver, Giuseppe Vasi da Corleone, went under the radar. In recent decades, scholarly attention has turned to Vasi's life and works. Giuseppe Vasi was born in 1710, in Corleone, Sicily. …
‘One of the greatest sources of information we have in Ireland is the Ordnance Survey Books, which were made about a century ago by three men, John O’Donovan, Eugene O’Curry, and George Petrie. They went around and took down all the place names of the country and recorded material of very great importance. But the …
I admit I wasn’t familiar with General Richard Mulcahy when I was offered the opportunity to work with his collection in the UCD Archives. A search of Wikipedia and the thirty-pound Atlas of the Irish Revolution - note: when researching Irish history, bring a sturdy bag and visit the library last - gave me the …
Following his untimely passing in December 2012, the personal library of the poet and critic Dennis O'Driscoll was bequeathed to University College Dublin. His wife, the poet Julie O'Callaghan, facilitated delivery of the extensive collection to UCD Library in 2017. The lion's share of O'Driscoll's library now resides in UCD Special Collections where it forms …