Extra! Extra! Finding Bonus Material in a Book

At first glance, Robert Pool and John Cash’s Views of the most Remarkable Public Buildings, Monuments and other Edifices in the City of Dublin (25.J.8) seems like many other eighteenth century books held in UCD Special Collections. Published in Dublin for 'J. Williams, 21 Skinner-row in 1780', the book guides the reader through the streets … Continue reading Extra! Extra! Finding Bonus Material in a Book

The First Successful Non-Stop East to West Transatlantic Flight 

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 

‘Yours heroically’: James Joyce and the Curran/Laird Letter Collection

Constantine Curran and James Joyce first meet in 1899, when they were both students in University College, then located at 87 St. Stephen’s Green. This was the beginning of a life-long friendship between the two men, as Curran remained a close confidant of the writer after he moved away from Ireland. Photograph of James Joyce … Continue reading ‘Yours heroically’: James Joyce and the Curran/Laird Letter Collection

The Temperance Movement in Ireland: The Pioneer Total Abstinence Association

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