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 … Continue reading Get Your Ghoul On!
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 … Continue reading A game of two halves
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. … Continue reading The Godfather of Engraving
‘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 … Continue reading Dear Diary…
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 … Continue reading More to Mulcahy
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 … Continue reading Dennis O’Driscoll Collection
On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module (Eagle) on the moon, as Michael Collins orbited the moon in the command module (Pilot). Apollo 11 was launched by a Saturn V rocket from Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida, on July 16 and returned to Earth on July … Continue reading …our sincerest congratulations and our unbounded admiration…
On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module (Eagle) on the moon, as Michael Collins orbited the moon in the command module (Pilot). Apollo 11 was launched by a Saturn V rocket from Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida, on July 16 and returned to Earth on July … Continue reading Fly me to the moon!
Tomás Ó Muircheartaigh was one of Ireland’s most prolific photographers of the early 20th century. He’s perhaps best remembered for capturing the everyday life of ordinary people living in Ireland’s rural districts. Ó Muircheartaigh was born in Dublin in 1907. His father Tomás and his mother Bríd Ní Mathúna both worked as teachers in the … Continue reading The Ethnologist’s Eye
“The Workhouse was the most feared and hated institution ever established in Ireland” - John O’Connor, The Workhouses of Ireland. The local workhouse building remains a familiar sight in many towns across the island of Ireland. Built to provide relief for the poor, the controversial and tragic history of these buildings reverberates to this very day. … Continue reading The Workhouse Drawings Collection
