The future, in its cloak of fog and mystery, has long been the object of curiosity and worry, urging us to grasp at the unknown and search for evidence of what is yet to come. Some turn to tarot cards, others read their horoscope, or watch for magpies and lucky numbers to judge how their … Continue reading Divining the Future at Hallowe’en
This addition to our Decade of Centenaries series focuses on a small collection belonging to Caitlín Brugha, member of the Gaelic League, active member of the 1916 Rising, Sinn Féin TD and wife of Cathal Brugha. Caitlín Brugha, was born Catherine Mary Kingston, on 9 December 1879 at Birr, Co. Offaly. She was educated at … Continue reading DOC Series: Caitlín Brugha
As time passes and we move further away from specific moments and events, nuance is lost. An historical narrative is written and in it incidents may be omitted and periods of time compressed so that a story can be neatly told. This is the nature of history-telling for the most part - condensing the story … Continue reading Ephemeral Arteries: Connecting with our past through ‘disposable’ artefacts
While legal and religious factors have long guided our moral compass, our traditional code of right and wrong has also been informing individual conduct for a considerable amount of time. In oral tradition, particular behaviours deemed to be unacceptable are often followed by examples of what happens when this code is ignored. Among the prohibitions … Continue reading Holy Wells and Sacred Trees: Interference with the natural world
‘... the children, at the first hint of Spring, cast down the toys bought for them at Christmas, and came out to play in the open air — out to play all the games I knew so well. I noticed how little the games and rhymes had changed since I played here, the tunes remained … Continue reading Games I Play
UCD Special Collections holds several manuscripts written by the 19th century antiquarian John O’Donovan. Of these manuscripts, perhaps the most intriguing is one entitled Description and historical illustrations of the round towers and other contemporaneous ecclesiastical remains in Ireland [UCD MS 49]. It also holds a collection of correspondence between O’Donovan and his friend and … Continue reading John O’Donovan Manuscripts in UCD Special Collections
If you are lucky enough to have created and tended a vegetable patch during lockdown, you may be getting ready to harvest your potato crop of earlies round about now. The Irish, in particular, have an affinity for the potato which, in the 1840s, lead to a very dark time in Irish history; The Great … Continue reading Ireland will never never recover
Dublin-born poet and author Austin Clarke (1896 - 1974) amassed a large personal library during his lifetime. Encompassing prose, poetry, drama, literary criticism and biography, this collection of publications is now part of the Poetry Ireland Library, housed in UCD Special Collections. As well as revealing much about Clarke’s own reading interests and the type … Continue reading By the Cover: Dust Jackets and the Austin Clarke Collection
In general, I may say that these part-time collectors have been excellent, because we do our best to pick them carefully. -Seán Ó Súilleabháin, 1950 On walking into the archive of the National Folklore Collection (NFC), you are greeted by walls of numbered manuscripts. To your right are the rolling shelves holding the bright green … Continue reading Part-time Collecting for the Irish Folklore Commission
Through the centuries the Irish have been referred to as storytellers, poets and singers. But where do these poems and songs come from? In UCD Archives there is a small fragmentary collection that belonged to a collector and translator of Irish manuscripts. Eugene O’ Curry was born in Dunaha, Co. Clare on 2 November 1794. … Continue reading Fireside songs they are gone