UCD LIBRARY CULTURAL HERITAGE COLLECTIONS
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
Félire Oénguso, or, The Martyrology of Óengus (UCD-OFM Ms A7) is a register of saints and their feast days. It is one of the series of Irish language “A” manuscripts transferred to UCD Archives by the Irish Franciscans under the terms of the UCD-OFM Partnership Agreement. It is available to view online on the Irish …
Thirty-three years ago, in September 1990, starting out into what used to be called an ‘MA by major research’, I first set foot in UCD Archives searching for sources for my dissertation on Ireland’s engagement with the League of Nations. There was then no Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) collection in the National Archives; it …
The title of Carolle J. Carter’s book about German espionage in the Irish Free State during World War Two is the perfect title for this blog post: the story of a Nazi German spy who lived in Ireland for a year and a half before being caught (much to the embarrassment of Eamon de Valera’s …
The summer of 1890 saw Ireland produce the winner of the men's singles (Willoughby Hamilton), women's singles (Lena Rice) and the men's doubles (Joshua Pim and Frank Stoker) at the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis championships. In the ensuing decade, Irish tennis players won five Wimbledon singles and two men’s doubles titles. Perhaps Hamilton, Rice, Pim and …
The archives of the Leinster Branch of the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) were transferred to UCD Archives in 2014, in consultation with Professor Paul Rouse, UCD School of History. The collection has been catalogued and digitised and is available to view in our reading room by appointment, to holders of a UCDA reader’s ticket. …
The 24 May 2023 will mark 100 years since the IRA Chief of Staff Frank Aiken issued a ‘dump arms’ order to republican forces, bringing an end to the military fighting of the Irish Civil War. It also marked a seminal moment, in what Éamon de Valera (then President of the de jure Republican Government) …
Continue reading "The Final IRA Executive Meeting Attended by Liam Lynch, 23-26 March 1923"
UCD Archives holds a category of collections which we have designated ‘Small Collections’. These are collections which consist of a single item, a series of disparate items or a few files. There is no defining attribute other than the number of items is too small to create a full descriptive catalogue but the item or …
As part of the UCD MA in Archives and Records Management course, I am working on a project to catalogue the papers of Timothy Aloysius Smiddy in UCD Archives. Timothy Smiddy was the first official diplomatic agent of the Irish Free State. In 1924 he was appointed as Ireland's envoy extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to …
Continue reading "The First Successful Non-Stop East to West Transatlantic Flight "
The Pioneer Total Abstinence Association (PTAA) was founded in Dublin in the Presbytery of St Francis Xavier Church, Gardiner Street in December 1898 by Father James Cullen SJ. Present at that first meeting were four well known Dublin women: Anne Egan, Lizzie Power, Mary Bury and A.M. Sullivan. Although little is known of these four …
Continue reading "The Temperance Movement in Ireland: The Pioneer Total Abstinence Association"
Among the papers of Eamon de Valera about the Civil War period, one section covers the reorganisation of Sinn Féin, peace moves and the ceasefire (November 1922–August 1923). The documents in this section are wide-ranging, demonstrating that archives do not exist in isolation and are not neatly concerned with one topic. As the Civil War …