Some time ago, seated at ease upon a summer evening and taking a serene review of an indefensibly fortunate and happy life, I calculated that I must have committed at least fifty-three murders, and been concerned with hiding about half a hundred corpses for the purpose of the concealment of crimes; hanging one corpse on … Continue reading The Real Father Brown: Rediscovering John O’Connor
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
Published by Julius Bien, New York, in 1870, F.V Hayden’s Sun Pictures of Rocky Mountain Scenery, with a description of the Geographical and Geological Features, and Some Account of the Resources of the Great West is a large and weighty book. The copy now housed in UCD Special Collections was once part of the Royal … Continue reading Sun Pictures: Geology, Photography and the Rocky Mountains
Ar an 15ú lá Iúil 2022, céiliúrfaimid comóradh céad bliain i ndiaidh bhreithlá an t-údar, Cathal Ó Sándair. Bhain sé cáil amach lena shraitheanna leabhar do dhéagóirí. Agus muid ag druidim i dtreo an chomóraidh seo, chaith foireann Sainchnuasaigh UCD am ag catalógú tromlach na leabhar a scríobh Ó Sándair, mar chuid den obair ar … Continue reading Taobh Thiar Den Laoch, Reics Carló / Behind the Hero Reics Carló
Recently, and in part-fulfilment of my MA in Archives and Records Management, I was afforded the opportunity to arrange and catalogue material belonging to Seán Ó’Ríordáin (1917–1977) which had been donated to UCD Special Collections in the years after the accession of his principal collection. As a lifelong Gaelgeoir, I have always found resonance with … Continue reading ‘Litir pharanoiach – duit féin amháin’: Seán Ó’Ríordáin, File, Fáidh agus Draoi
The publication of this blog coincides with the anniversary of the death of Sydney Owenson, Lady Morgan in April 1859. Born in Dublin, Owenson became a well-known novelist and literary celebrity in the early decades of the nineteenth century. Writing about Owenson in Some Fair Hibernians (London: Ward & Downey, 1897) Frances A. Gerard noted … Continue reading Sydney Owenson, Lady Morgan: Writer and ‘Fair Hibernian’
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
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
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
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