Posted on February 22, 2023 in Uncategorized by Aedin
Our most recent shipment of books from Ireland includes something for everybody! I took a few quick phone pictures before they went off for cataloging.
An File Mícheál Ó Gaoithín
The Blasket Painter
Selected and introduced by
Maria Simonds-Gooding
Second Voyages: Writers on Poems by Eiléán Ní Chuilleanáin. Gallery Press, 2022.
Engaging with Irish Vernacular Worldview: Narrative and ritual expression of native cultural tradition.
Gearóid Ó Crualaoich.
Cork University Press, 2022
This next book is by Fiacre Ryan. The publisher tells is it is ‘the first book to be authored by an Irish non-verbal autistic person.’
Speechless. Reflections from my voiceless world. Fiacre Ryan. Irish Academic Press, 2022Ciarán Michael Casey. The Irish Department of Finance 1959-99. Dublin: Institute of Public Adminstration, 2022. Hesburgh Library HJ 1043 .C37 2022John Scattergood. Time’s Subjects: Horology and Literature in the Later Middle Ages and Renaissance. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2022. Hesburgh NK 7486 .S23 2022Irish Maritime Trade in the Restoration Era: The Letterbook of William Hovell, 1683-1687. Edited by James O’Shea. Dublin: Irish Manuscripts Commission, 2022.Botany and Gardens in Early Modern Ireland. Edited by Elizabethanne Boran, Charles Nelson and Emer Lawlor. Dublin: Four Courts Press for the Trustees of the Edward Worth Library, 2022.
Posted on October 17, 2022 in Uncategorized by Aedin
‘An Fear do fuair Bás agus do Éirigh Arís/ The Man Who Died and Rose Again.
The Man Who Died and Rose Again. (Double Jig). In Francis O’Neill: The dance music of Ireland: 1001 gems. To see the book, Visit the Hesburgh Special Collections: Special Coll.Rare Books Large M 1744 .D36 1986, or see this digitized copy in Hathi Trust: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011983920
If you post a recording on social media of yourself playing our Weekly Irish Tune, please use the hashtag #ONeillTunes.
Drowsy Maggie. From Francis O’Neill: The dance music of Ireland: 1001 gems.
To see the book, Visit the Hesburgh Special Collections: Special Coll.Rare Books Large M 1744 .D36 1986, or see this digitized copy in Hathi Trust: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011983920
If you post a recording of yourself on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, playing our Weekly Irish Tune, please use the hashtag #ONeillTunes.
We plan to share a tune from the O’Neill Collection (the library of Captain Francis O’Neill) each week this semester. If you wish to share a recording of yourself playing this tune, please tag it on social media with #ONeillTunes.
Posted on August 31, 2022 in Uncategorized by Aedin
Trinity College Library Dublin A descriptive catalogue of manuscripts containing Middle English and some Old English John Scattergood, with Niamh Pattwell & Emma Williams. Four Courts Press.Look! It’s a Woman Writer! Irish Literary Feminisms, 1970–2020. Edited by ´Éilís Ní Dhuibhne,. Arlen House.Dark Enchantment by Dorothy Macardle. Tramp Press.
A selection of the books published in Ireland that reached our Hesburgh Library shelves this year:
Cathal Ó Searcaigh. Laoithe Cumainn agus Dánta Eile. Arlen House. PB 1399 .O778 L36 2020
The selection above is a small sample of the many books that arrived from Ireland in the past year.
*Books marked ‘New Book Area’ will eventually be moved to their permanent shelving location. The New Book Area is a good place to browse for new books, especially in the DA section on Irish history, the PB section for Irish language literature and the PR section which includes literature from Britain and from Ireland.
The following is a catalog of the Spotlight Exhibit currently in the RBSC Exhibit Room, along with the catalog of the ‘Pop-Up Exhibition’, the one-afternoon arrangement of Ulysses editions and art, held on February 9th. 2022.
Spring Spotlight Exhibit:
Ulysses. James Joyce. Shakespeare and Company. 12, Rue de l’Odéon, 12. Paris, 1922. The first edition, published February 2, 1922. This edition was limited to 1,000 copies. This copy is number 742.
Ulysses. James Joyce. First English edition (printed in France). Published for the Egoist Press, London by John Rodker, Paris, 1922.
[A Protest], Paris, 2nd February, 1927. An original printed copy of the protest and appeal issued on Joyce’s birthday, 2nd February, 1927, against the unauthorized publication of sections of Joyce’s Ulysses by the American publisher Samuel Roth in his Two Worlds Monthly magazine. 167 signatories, including artists and writers of many nationalities, signed this protest which was printed in Transition in April 1927.
Two Worlds Monthly, December 1926. Edited by Samuel Roth. 14 episodes of Ulysses were reprinted without permission and in twelve instalments,a bowdlersized form in Two Worlds Monthly, New York, from 1926
We would have liked to exhibit the Little Review, the magazine published by Margaret Anderson and Jane Heap, but our copy, shown here, is too fragile to display.
February Spotlight Exhibit
Eccles Street, from the special limited edition In Medias Res: The Ulysses Maps: A Dublin Odyssey. By David Lilburn. Printed by Stoney Road Press, Dublin.
Other prints from the suite, placed on temporary display on Feb. 9th were Loop Bridge,Phoenix Park and Howth.
Thanks to the Analog Conservation Unit for mounting and preparing the books and prints, and to Sara Weber whose artistic design work makes an attractive exhibition from a shelf of books.
The following catalog of books and prints was prepared along with Arpit Kumar, who co-curated the one afternoon ‘pop-up exhibit’.
Editions on Display, February 9th
Ulysses by James Joyce. Paris: Shakespeare and Company. Ninth printing, 1927.
Ulysses by James Joyce. Hamburg: The Odyssey Press, 1932. (In two volumes.)
Ulysses by James Joyce. Hamburg: The Odyssey Press, 1939. (In two volumes.)
Ulysses by James Joyce. New York: Random House, 1934. First American Edition.
Ulysses by James Joyce. New York: Limited Editions Club, 1935. With an introduction by Stuart Gilbert and illustrations by Henri Matisse. This book was a gift from Donald Keough.
Ulysses by James Joyce. London: The Bodley Head, 1936. Number 993 of 1,000 copies.
Ulysses by James Joyce. Translated to French by M. Auguste Morel with M. Stuart Gilbert. The translation was reviewed by M. Valery Larbaud with the collaboration of the author. Paris: La Maison des Amis des Livres (Adrienne Monnier), 1929.
Ulysses von James Joyce. Translated to German by Georg Goyert. Basel: Rhein-Verlag, 1927. In three volumes. Made available by the Smurfit Collection in Irish Studies.
Uiliséas a chum James Joyce. Translated by Breasal Uilsean and Séamas Ó hInnéirghe. Belfast: Foilseacháin Inis Gleoire, 1984-1991 (dates are not confirmed). 12 volumes.
Facsimiles
James Joyce Ulysses: A Facsimile of the Manuscript. With a critical introduction by Harry Levin and a bibliographical preface by Clive Driver. New York: Octagon Books, 1975. Two volumes.
James Joyce Ulysses: The Manuscript and First Printings Compared, annotated by Clive Driver. New York: Octagon Books, 1975.
Art, Photography and Other Books
The Works of Master Poldy, edited by Stephen Cole. Dublin: The Salvage Press, 2013.
James Joyce. 9 Portraits by Josef Breitenbach. Dublin: The Towers, 2004.
Joyce’s Ulysses by D. Lasky. Minit Classics, 1991.
James Joyce in Paris: His Final Years, by Gisèle Freund and V. B. Carleton, with a preface by Simone de Beauvoir. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1965.
These books may be requested by readers to study in our Reading Room.
Mindful that this week’s Rare Books and Special Collections blogpost would go out on St. Brigid’s Day, we published a picture from an early twentieth-century children’s book, An Alphabet of Irish Saints.
This morning’s flurry of social media activity, including pictures and accounts of blankets and clothes put out overnight, and photographs of crosses like the cross above, reminds me of an inquiry we received a few years ago about our Radharc video collection.
Does anybody remember the Radharc films on RTÉ television? The Radharc Trust website provides a history, and some digital film and images may be found on websites of RTÉ and of the IFI.
Among our DVDs of Radharc films is a very short documentary describing St. Brigid’s eve in a Co. Donegal household. Our correspondent who emailed from England turned out to be a member of the family featured in the film, and she was interested in obtaining a transcript. She added that her family had moved to Scotland, where the Edinburgh neighbors thought their annual observances of St. Brigid’s Day were quite unusual.
Now, as it happened, my colleague Gráinne Ní Mhuirí, who was a visiting Fulbright Irish language teacher, had used the film in her Irish class, and between us, we had transcribed the text and provided a rough translation, so we had the transcript on file.
The film begins with the Duffy men and boys outside, making preparations, while the women work indoors, and takes us through all the events of the eve of St. Brigid’s Day in the Duffy home.
I nGaeltacht Thír Chonaill tá mórán sean-nósanna in onóir Naoimh Bríd beo go fóill i measc na ndaoine.
Seo Anagaire, áit álainn os cionn na gCaslach, an áit a bhfuil teaghlach mhuintir Dhubhthaigh ina gcónaí.
Oíche Fhéile Bríde téid an seanduine agus Conal agus Liam amach fá choinne cochán a dheineas na crosa. Caithfear an cochán a thabhairt isteach roimh luí gréine. Scoitear agus glantar é mar mhínóis an seanduine do na stócaigh. In áiteanna I dTír Chonaill feaga is mó a bhíonn acu leis na crosa a dhéanamh ach measann siad in Anagaire gur fearr na crosa cocháin.
Istigh sa teach tá Bríd agus Bean Uí Dhubhthaigh ag cur síos tine leis na bruitíní a bhruith. Brúitíní, sin prátaí brúite agus bainne is im agus oinniúin is salann iontu. Beirtear na prátaí isteach ón pholl, caithfear a nglanadh go maith anocht, agus an pota a ghlanadh chomh maith.
Ní bhíonn bruitíní ag an teaghlach seo gach uile oíche – dhá oíche chionn féile sa bhliain a bhíos bruitíní acu, mar atá, Oíche Shamhna agus Oíche Fhéile Bhríde.
Bheir na fir lámh cuidithe leis an bhéile; baineann siad na súlógaí as na prátaí, ‘piocadh bruit]in’ an t-ainm a bheirtear ar an obair seo; nitear athuair as uisce glan iad agus tá siad réidh le cur ar an tine.
Agus oíche mar seo, fad is a bhíos na prátaí dá mbruth bheadh duine ag súil le scéal agus gheibhimid é. Insíonn an seanfhear ceann de na scéalta fá Naomh Bríd, scéalta a tháining aniar ón aimsir chianaosta ó ghlúin go glúin.
Níl sé chomh furasta pota prátaí a shileadh agus a shílfeadh duileadh aineolach, ach tá lámh maith ag mná Thír Chonaill air. Cuirtear crág shalainn agus oinniúin gearrtha ar na práta]I agus anois caithfear a brú. Tuirnín an t-ainm atá ar an maide a bhrúnns iad. Ní an tuirnís seo brúitín de na prátaí is righne dá …. bhealach.
Tuairim ar chearthrú I ndiaidh a haondéag, téann an teaghlach ar a nglúinibh le paidrín cúig ndeichniúr déag a rá. Le cois cionn a chur ar an Phaidrín, tá paidir ar leith acu an oíche seo, “Paidir agus Ave Máire le muid féin agus an méid is …. orainn a shábháil ar muir agus ar tír, ar tonn agus ar tráigh, gach bealach agus bearnas dá rachaimid. Agus go speisialta ar chaill agus ar urc.. na farraige móire.”
Paidir í seo atá ar fóirstin do dhaoine a chaithfeas a ngabháil I ngleic leis an fharraige mhóir ag saothrú a mbeatha nach bhfuil le fáil ar an talamh acu.
I dtráthaibh an mheán oíche, nuair atá an Paidrín ráite, tosaíonn Turas Bhríde, príomhócáid na féile. Bheir gach duine den teaghlach ball éadaigh do Bhríd, idir gheansaí nó stocaí, bheir Bríd léí na neadaí agus an p… chocháin agus téid sí amach ar an doras cúil. Téid sí thart far an teach thí huaire de thaobh na láimhe deise. Téid sí ar a glúine ag an doras tosaigh agus scairteann sí leis an teaghlach: “Gabhaigí ar bhur nglúine agus fosclaigí bhur súile agus ligigí isteach Bríd Bheannaithe.” Bheir siadsan freagra uirthi, “’Sé beatha, ‘sé beatha, ‘sé beatha na mná uaisle.” Coisrictear na héadaí le huisce coisricthe agus deirtear an urnaí, “Caithfidh mé seo in onóir Bhríde, le mo shábháin ar gach olc agus gach urchóid go bliain ó anocht.” Rud measartha deacair geansaí ag stócach le cur air.
Sa deireadh suíonn an teaghlach thart ag déanamh crosa Bhríde. Féachann gach duine le cros a dhéanamh, ach ar ndóigh tá daoine níos fearr ná daoine eile á ndéanamh.
Ní hionann a nitear crosa Bhríde i ngach … den tír. Anseo in Anagaire, ceanglaíonn siad dhá shlat dá chéile I bhfoirm croise agus fill siad na sipíní thart á cheangail. Is féidir gach rud go dtí fiche cros a dhéanamh ar an chros mhór amháin. Ansin cuirtear na crosa in airde sna creataí istigh sa teach agus sna bothaigh ag iarraidh coimirce Bhríde ar dhaoine agus ar ainmhithe sa bhliain atá romhainn. Fágtar na crosa sna háiteacha seo go bliain ó anocht. Coinnítear fuíollach an chocháin agus cuirtear I dtaisce é. Cuirtear deireadh leis an Fhéile le paidir, “Cuidiú Bríde go raibh fár mbun, agus fár mbarr in éadan gach olc agus gan urchóid go ceann bliana ón lá inniu.
In the Donegal Gaeltacht many traditions in honor of Saint Bridgid are still alive among the people.
This is Anagary, a beautiful place above Caslach, where the Duffy family live.
On the Eve of Brigid’s Day, the old people and conal and Liam go out to find straw to make the crosses. the straw must be brought in before sunset. The straw is separated and cleaned as the old people explain to the lads. In some places in Donegal, reeds are what they have for making the crosses, but the people in Anagary think the straw crosses are better.
In the house, Bríd and Mrs. Duffy are setting the fire to boil the brúitín. Brúitíní, that is, potatoes mashed with milk and butter and onion and salt.
The potatoes are brought in from the hole; they must be well-washed tonight, and the pot must also be washed.
This family does not have brúitín every night. Two nights of the eve of a festival annually is when they have brúitín, that is, Halloween and St. Brigid’s Night.
The men give a helping had with the meal; they remove the eyes from the potatoes. “Piocadh brúitín” is what this work is called. They are washed once more in clean water, and then they are ready to be placed on the fire.
And a night like this, as the potatoes are being boiled, one would expect a story, and we have it. The old man tells one of the stories about Saint Bridgit, stories that came from the old days, passed from generation to generation.
It’s not as easy to prepare a pot of potatoes as one might think , but the women of Donegal are practised at it. Salt and chopped onion are added to the potatoes and now it must be mashed. The utensil with which they are mashed is called a Tuirnín. ….
At about a quarter past eleven, the family go on their knees to say five decades of the Rosary. At the head of the Rosary, they have a special prayer for this night, “A Prayer and Ave Maria to keep ourselves and … safe on land and sea, on wave and beach, every way and place where we go. And especially …. on the great sea.
This is a prayer that helps people who must to to sea to make their living as there is not sufficient for them on land.
About midnight, when the Rosary has been said, the Turas Bhríde (Bridgid’s Tour) begins, the main event of the festival. Every member of the family holds a piece of Bridgid’s clothing, either geansaí (sweater) or socks, and Bridgid lods the … and the straw bundle, and she goes out the back door. She goes three times around the house on her right (clockwise). She goes on her knees at the front door and she calls to the family: “Go on your knees and open your eyes and let Holy Bridgid in.” They reply, “’Sé beatha (Hail), ‘sé beatha, ‘sé beatha gentlewoman.” The clothes are blessed with holy water and the prayer is recited, “I will wear this in honor of Bridgid, to protect me from every harm and every iniquity for a year from tonight.”
It is quite difficult to put a geansaí on a young boy.
At last the family sit around making the St. Bridgid’s Crosses. Each person likes to make a cross, but of course some people are better than others at making them.
St. Bridgid’s Crosses are not the same all over the country. Here in Anagary, they tie two sticks together in the form of a cross, and they fold the together in the form of a cross and fold the twigs around to tie them. Up to twenty crosses can be made on one big cross.
Then the crosses are put up in the rafters in the house and in the sheds to ask for Bridgid’s protection for the people and animals in the year ahead. The crosses are left in this place for a year from tonight.
The remaining straw is kept and put away. The festival ends with the prayer, “May the help of Bridgid be below and above, against every ill and every iniquity for a year from today.
The film is found in our catalog as Bridgid’s Night, with the information that it was filmed in Co. Donegal in 1961.
To learn more about our video collections, see our library guide to Ireland on Film.
Posted on January 30, 2021 in Uncategorized by Aedin
I particularly like to highlight books that do not fall into the categories of literature or history as they may not be as easy to find by browsing the collections. All of these books arrived in the library during 2020.
Mary J. Murphy. Achill Painters: An Island History: with the stories of Belgian Expressionist Marie Howet & art doyenne Eva O’Flaherty. Knockma Publishing, 2020. ND 496 .M87 2020
S. Hodges. The Works of J. M. W. Turner at the National Gallery of Ireland. National Gallery of Ireland, 2017. ND 497 .T8 A4 2017b
Ann Lane. By the Way 2: a selection of public art in Ireland. Wordwell, 2019. NB 485 .L362 2019
R. A. Stalley. Early Irish Sculpture and the Art of the High Crosses. Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 2020
Cynthia Thickpenny, ed. Peopling Insular Art: Practice, Performance, Perception. Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Insular Art, Glasgow, 2017. Oxbow Books.
Seán Scully: Human. Exhibition Curated by Javier Molins. Milan: Skira, 2019. ND 237 .S43735 A4 2019
Sean Williams. Focus: Irish Traditional Music. Second edition. Routledge, 2020. Ebook.
Colin F. Harte. The Bodhrán. Experimentation, Innovation, and the Traditional Irish Frame Drum. University of Tennessee Press, 2020. Music Library (O’Neill Hall) ML 1038 .B63 H37
Christine Kinealy and Gerard Moran (eds.), Irish Famines Before and After the Great Hunger. Cork University Press. DA 950.7 .I75 2020
Leanne Howe and Padraig Kirwan (eds.). Famine Pots: The Choctaw Irish Gift Exchange, 1849-present. Cork University Press. E99 .C8 F36 2020 – also online
Paul Harron and Kenneth Milne, eds. Irish Anglicanism 1969-2019: Essays to Mark the 150th Anniversary of the Disestablishment of the Church of Ireland. Dublin: Four Courts Press. BX 5550 .I75 2019 (also as an ebook)
Gerald Dawe. The Sound of the Shuttle: Essays on Cultural Belonging and Protestantism in Northern Ireland. Irish Academic Press, 2020. BX 4839 .D39 2020
Karl Kitching. Childhood, Religion and School Injustice. Cork University Press, 2020. LA 669.61 .K58 2020 (also an ebook)
Bryan Fanning and Lucy Michael, eds. Immigrants as Outsiders in the Two Irelands. Manchester University Press, 2019. JV 7712 .I46 2019
Eoin O’Sullivan. Reimagining Homelessness for Policy and Practice. Policy Press, 2020. HV 4548 .A4 O88 2020
Posted on December 7, 2020 in Uncategorized by Aedin
It’s many months since I’ve reported on new books in the library, and, hoping to display some of our new books in the coming weeks, I thought it would be interesting to begin with a selection of new books on women, women’s affairs, and women’s history.
Ruth Carr and Natasha Cuddington, eds. Her Other Language: Northern Irish Women Address Domestic Violence and Abuse. Arlen House. PR 8836 .W6 2020
Elaine Farrell. Women, Crime and Punishment in Ireland: Life in the Nineteenth-Century Convict Prison. Cambridge University Press. -ebook
Barbara Walsh. Irish Servicewomen in the Great War: From the Western Front to the Roaring Twenties. Pen & Sword. D 639 .W7 W35 2020
Celia de Fréine, Mná Dána. Arlen House. PB 1399 .D37 M63 2009 (and a second copy in Special Collections for use in the Library.) This is a collection of three plays by Celia de Fréine, the common thread being the title, ‘Mná Dána’, or ‘bold women’.
Susan Liddy. Women in the Irish Film Industry: Stories and Storytellers. Cork University Press. PN 1995.9 .W6 L54 2020 (Also online at Project Muse.)
Margaret MacCurtain. Metaphors for Change. Arlen. DA 913 .M2475 2019
Not specifically about women, but as the late Margaret MacCurtain was one of the most important voices in Irish women’s history, her essays on Irish society are relevant here.
Photograph of Peig Sayers from the National Folklore Collection, UCD. ARCHIVAL REFERENCE The Photographic Collection, M001.18.00196 https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbeg/14468
Peig Sayers. Níl Deireadh Ráite; Not the Final Word. Eagarthóirí/editors Bo Alquist and Pádraig Ó hÉalaí. Book with two CDs. New Island. (Not yet cataloged.)
Ann-Maria Walsh. The Daughters of the First Earl of Cork: Writing Family, Faith Politics and Place. Four Courts Press. DA 940.5 .C7 W35 2020
Anne Enright. Actress: A Novel. Norton. PR 6055 .N73 A63 2020
