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
As of late, I’ve noticed the same fox walking by where I live each night. As I watched him go by, it brought me back to something, or rather someone, I had come across while creating an index for the Urban Folklore Project, as part of my work in the National Folklore Collection. The Urban …
Continue reading "Adolphus Cooke in the Urban Folklore Project"
(Cur L 30) Ink and crayon drawing at the head of the letter by A. E. 1867-1935 As it is nearing the end of my fifth month here in Special Collections, I have come across the ways in which the collection greatly inspires people in their academic endeavours, however, I believe the collection can also …
This blogpost was originally supposed to be about our acetate disc digitisation and publication project as we near its end but after the launch of our latest and last (for a while) batch of acetate discs at this year’s Oireachtas na Samhna festival, it was clear that the festival itself was the real story. With …
Continue reading "Oireachtas na Samhna: a Celebration of our Cultural Heritage"
The Henry Roe Room / Christ Church Cathedral Music Room (SC.Arch.W 726.6 STR) In the introduction to A History of Music at Christ Church Cathedral Dublin reference is made to cathedrals having a place in the social and cultural lives of cities. An example of this occurred last May. People assembled in the Henry Roe Room, formed a choir …
A notable aspect of private paper collections, is how a person features as a thread that runs through the tapestry of a collection. We have explored this before in our post about the death of W.B. Yeats, although here it may be more intentional, as some of the correspondents’ thoughts about Macnamara are being sought …
Harriet Hjort by Anna Riwkin (1908-1970) © Anna Riwkin/Moderna Museet, FM 1981 032 2518 Scholarship links between Ireland and Scandinavia in the field of folklore are too numerous to mention, but suffice it to say that in 1921, undergraduate Séamus Ó Duilearga met Norwegian Reidar Christiansen by chance in a Dublin book shop, and this …
This year marks the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Irish Franciscan college in Rome. St. Isidore’s College (Collegio S. Isidoro) started its task of training Franciscans for the Irish mission in 1625. The anniversary has been an occasion of celebration, not only by the Franciscan order (Order of Friars Minor, O.F.M) in Rome, …
The largely ceremonial role of governor-general in the Irish Free State (1922–1963) was to act as the official representative of the Crown. The office was viewed negatively by many as a symbol of continued British involvement in Irish affairs. Timothy Healy (1855–1931) held the role from 1922–1928, James McNeill (1869–1938) from 1928–1932, and Domhnall Ua …
Continue reading "“A considered policy”: the Governor General and Éamon de Valera ( Part 1)"
The section of the catalogue of Eamon de Valera’s extensive papers, covering his time as President of the Executive Council and his first period as Taoiseach (1932–1948), includes material on negotiations with the UK; the drafting, publication and approval of the 1937 Constitution; the Emergency; and Irish neutrality. Among this rich documentation, is a file …
UCD Woodland Path In April 2023 on a rather damp day, I stepped onto UCD’s campus for a walk. Little did I know then that two years later I would be contributing to the university’s Cultural Heritage Blog. As a recent addition to the Special Collection’s team getting to know its collections, my attention turned …
Continue reading "Waysides, Woodlands and Special Collections"