A recent generous donation to UCD Archives illustrates the complexities of archival sources in understanding events which are traumatic, personal, and which are also caught up in the sweep of great events. Muriel MacSwiney (née Murphy, 1892–1982) married Terence MacSwiney (1879–1920) on 9 June 1917 much to the disapproval of her family. They had one … Continue reading Personal Papers and Complex Sources: Muriel and Máire MacSwiney
The 17 March 2022 sees the grand return of parades and festivities in honour of St Patrick’s Day. Whether they are parade participants or enthusiastic onlookers, we can certainly rely on the celebrating crowds to dress for the occasion. As in previous years, we will no doubt see the colour green take centre stage as … Continue reading Dressing the Part for St Patrick’s Day
Interacting with special collections and archival materials can be an impactful experience for the user. Turning the pages of a sixteenth-century book, reading a propaganda pamphlet from the Irish revolutionary period, finding notes and inscriptions of a former owner on ephemera and photographs, deciphering the handwriting of famous writer, feeling the texture of the paper, … Continue reading Special Collections: Inspiring Creative Practice
A member of Cumann na mBan, in December 1921 Lily O'Brennan (1878–1948) was on the secretarial staff of the treaty delegation, working at Hans Place, London, throughout the negotiations. An anti-treaty republican, O'Brennan was arrested during a raid on the anti-treaty headquarters at 23 Suffolk Street in November 1922 and, following this, was interned in … Continue reading DOC Series: Lily O’Brennan
The 2 February 2022 marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of the twentieth century's greatest modernist novel: James Joyce's Ulysses. It is a fitting occasion also for UCD library to celebrate our holdings of the Curran/Laird Collection which has many intimate and intricate connections with Joyce and his most famous novel. Constantine Curran (1883–1972) … Continue reading 100 Years of James Joyce’s Ulysses
Users of the 1937-1939 Schools’ Collection often comment on the beautiful handwriting of the contributing students. Indeed, it was often the student with the neatest handwriting who copied the chosen material from the smaller copybooks to the larger, final manuscripts now bound into the Schools’ Collection and available online on dúchas.ie. The careful handwriting is … Continue reading Illustrating Tradition: Maps from the Schools’ Collection
The historian Francis Xavier (F. X.) Martin (1922–2000), joined the Augustinian Order of Friars in 1941 and was ordained a priest in 1952, having received a BA degree at UCD in 1949. His Master’s thesis won him an National University of Ireland travelling studentship to Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he completed his doctoral thesis in 1959. … Continue reading What Survives…
Caoimhín Ó Danachair — or Kevin Danaher, as he was more widely known — was collecting folklore in his home town of Athea, Limerick, on behalf of the Institute of Irish Folklore from as early as 1934. In 1935, while Ó Danachair was still a student of archaeology, the Director of the National Museum of … Continue reading Caoimhín Ó Danachair: The Ethnographer’s Eye
The Papers of Desmond and Mabel FitzGerald (UCDA P80) include letters from Ernie O’Malley to Mabel FitzGerald, which evince a warm personal friendship between them, in addition to a shared political philosophy. Mabel Washington McConnell, a Belfast Presbyterian and nationalist, met Desmond FitzGerald, born in London of Irish parents, at Gaelic League classes where he … Continue reading Ever yours, Ernie
In 1853, Matthew Digby Wyatt published The Industrial Arts of the Nineteenth Century: A Series of Illustrations of the Choicest Specimens Produced by Every Nation at the Great Exhibition of Works of Industry (London: Day and Son) in two volumes. Large in format, these handsome books are filled with intricate colour reproductions of a small selection of some … Continue reading The Art of the Book: Illustrating the Industrial Arts