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 last evening of October, Halloween, is linked with the spirits and the dead. In Christian calendars the next day is the Feast of All Saints, followed by the Feast of All Souls. As the days shorten these echoes of the dead seem appropriate. The passage from life to death and beyond holds a deep …
In 1960 the New York Public Library sued Peter Kavanagh, for reproducing the letters of John Quinn which they held in their care. The letters were transferred to the library in 1924. Under an agreement between the library and Quinn’s estate they were not to be published until 1988. Peter Kavanagh decided to ignore this …
Moments in Motion from the National Folklore Collection’s Photographic Archive Traditional customs and practices, particularly those no longer forming part of our daily lived experience, can often be difficult to envisage. We can read intricate written descriptions, or listen to vivid audio recollections, but sometimes all you really need is a photograph to bring the …
On 1st September 1864, Roger David Casement was born in Sandycove, Dublin to an Anglo-Irish family. Fifty years later he would be hanged in Pentonville Prison for his part in the 1916 Easter Rising. Casement will not only live in the hearts and minds of the Irish for his part in fighting for their human …
A letter left within a book may have been put there for any number of reasons. A forgotten bookmark perhaps, or, was the letter kept with the book as both were linked in some way? Such a letter tucked into a limited edition of Oscar Wilde’s Salomé would almost certainly fall into the latter category. …
Whether you’re a crossword lover, a meticulous scholar or simply an ardent logophile, you’ll have had cause at some point in your life to refer to the Oxford English Dictionary. What you might not know is that over 10,000 of the reference quotations used in that tome were seemingly contributed by one Dr. William Chester …
The Tolerence of Crows Death comes in quantity from solved Problems on maps, well-ordered dispositions, Angles of elevation and direction; Comes innocent from tools children might Love, retaining under pillows Innocently impales on any flesh. And with flesh falls apart the mind That trails thought from the mind that cuts Thought clearly for a waiting …
The buildings in the photos below will be familiar to most readers as the Government Buildings Complex on Kildare Street and Merrion Street in Dublin 2. It’s where we see Enda, Leo and the rest make statements, greet leaders from other countries, answer awkward questions and pose for photos. This great building was once the …
Continue reading "Science has Left the Government Buildings!"
UCD Archives is delighted to launch our new online exhibition 'The Finest Men Alive': Documents of Imprisonment and Protest. This exhibition examines the documents created by those arrested and imprisoned following the 1916 Easter Rising, firstly in Dublin and then various prisons throughout the UK until the general amnesty of June 1917. Their feelings, thoughts …
So boasts the publicity poster for that cinematic ‘classic’ Darby O’Gill and the Little People, released by Walt Disney Productions in 1959, and detailing the adventures of a wily Irishman as he tries to outwit a local band of leprechauns. Long recognised as a quintessential representation of stage ‘Oirishness’ it starred Albert Sharpe as the …
Continue reading "‘It’s a wonderful world of love, laughter, and leprechauns’"