Irish Studies at the Hesburgh Library

Our next shipment from Ireland includes a number of books in Irish.  Watch the catalog or let me know if you want to be the first to read any of them:

Fill Arís: Oidhreacht Sheáin Uí Ríordáin/ Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith & Liam Mac Amhlaigh.  Cló Iar-Chonnacht.

Deargadaoil i mBád fó Thoinn/  Pádraic Breathnach.  Cló Iar-Chonnacht.

Damhsa / Bríd Dáibhís.  Coiscéim.

Gaeil faoi Bhratach Eureka /Mícheál de Barra.  Coiscéim.

Dea-chaint John Gráinne agus a cháirde / John Hodgins.  Coiscéim.

Féilscríbhinn do Chathal Ó hÁinle / Eoin Mac Cárthaigh & Jürgen Uhlich. Cló Iar-Chonnacht / An Clóchomhar.

Bróga Johnny Thomáis / Jackie Mac Donncha.  Cló Iar-Chonnacht.

Anam na Teanga: Géarscagadh ar ghlac gearrscéalta. / Seán Mac Labhraí.  Cló Iar-Chonnacht.

Go dtí an Lá Bán: An focal labhartha.  Éabhlóid.

Sealbhú an Traidisiúin / Niamh Ní Shiadhail, Méidhbhín Ní Urdail, Ríonach Uí Ógain.  Coimisiún Bhéaloideas Éireann.

Cathair mar a Thuairisc agus Póirsí Eile/ Bernadette Nic an tSaoir.  Coiscéim.

Garret Fitzgerald agus Paddy Hillery: Beirt a chuir an Ghaeilge dá boinn/ Maoilsheachlainn Ó Caollai.  Coiscéim.

Conamara agus Boston: Tríocha Bliain Anonn is Anall.  / Máirtín Ó Catháin.  Cló Iar-Chonnacht.

Oilithreacht/ Ciarán Ó Coigligh.  LeabhairCOMHAR.

Scathlán Bus / Ciarán Ó Dornáin.  Coiscéim.

Ó Roinn go Sáil 2: Dialann Tuaithe / Diarmuid Ó Gráinne.  Coiscéim.

Obair Baile / Seán Ó Leocháin.  Coiscéim.

Fuaimeanna na Gaeilge: Cúrsa tosaigh foghraíochta agus fóineolaíochta i dtrí chanúint Ghaeilge / Brian Ó Raghallaigh.  Cois Life.

Macallaí na Cásca 9 : 1916 agus mar sin de / Pádraig Ó Snodaigh.  Coiscéim.

Cosa Gréine / Diarmaid Ó Súilleabhain.  Coiscéim.

There are excellent online sources for biographies of Irish people no longer living.   Here, for what it’s worth, are some of the sources of Irish biography:

The Dictionary of Irish Biography: This is available to the Notre Dame community through the library’s catalog.  If the link doesn’t work, go to the Library’s website, select the Databases tab, and find the Dictionary.

In addition to searching for people by name, you can search by place, dates, occupation and even by free text which means you can find any words occuring in the text.  For example “Hunger strike”, “slavery”,  “philanthropy” all yield lists of names.  Biographies are added all the time and at this point new additions include people who died in 2005 and 2006.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: Also a subscription, this has been around far longer than the Irish one, and includes many biographies of Irish people. It is “the national record of men and women who have shaped British history” so while there is no entry under “Haughey”, for example, Irish people from earlier centuries such as Aogán Ó Rathaille, or born in Northern Ireland, such as Siobhán McKenna, or whose career was largely in the UK, are included.

There are also websites freely available to all.  Those I know about and use frequently are Ainm.ie, Ricorso.net and the Dictionary of Ulster Biography.

All kinds of people associated with the Irish language are included in Ainm.ie, the digital version of the multi-volume Beatháisnéis.  Ricorso is mainly a bibliographic database but includes a short biographic summary of each Irish writer. Biographies from the whole province of Ulster are included in the Dictionary of Ulster Biography.

As far as I know, Ricorso is the only one of all the sources I mentioned that includes people who are still living.  It is worth remembering also that writers in this database are not only literary authors but people who have written on many subjects.

Ainm = Name

Beatháisnéis = Biography

Atlantic Currents/ Sruthanna an Aigéin thiar: Essays on Lore, Literature and Language/ Aistí ar Sheanchas, ar Litríocht agus ar Theanga.
Essays in honour of Séamas Ó Catháin / Aistí in onóir do Shéamas Ó Catháin.

Edited by Bo Almqvist, Liam Mac Mathúna, Séamus Mac Mathúna, Criostóir Mac Carthaigh, Seosamh Watson.
UCD Press.

Clara Cullen.  Elsie Henry’s Irish Wartime Diaries, 1913-1919.  Merrion.

M. P. McCabe.  For God and Ireland. The fight for moral superiority in Ireland 1922-1932.  Four Courts Press.

Anthony Roche.  Synge and the making of modern Irish drama.  Carysfort Press.

At the Anvil: Essays in honour of William J. Smyth.  Editors: Patrick J. Duffy and William Nolan.  Geography Publications.

Infanticide in the Irish Crown Files at Assizes, 1883-1900.  Edited by Elaine Farrell. Irish Manuscripts Commission.

Alan F. Parkinson.  Friends in high places: Ulster’s resistance to Irish Home Rule, 1912-14.  Ulster Historical Foundation.

The above list is a sampling of the latest books.  As they are processed, many of them will be displayed in the new book area on the first floor of the Hesburgh Library.

The strangest, most eye-catching book of this shipment is the graphic version of Myles na  gCopaleen’s An Béal Bocht .

Myles na gCopaleen. An Béal Bocht.  Cóirithe ón mBunGhaeilge ag Colmán Ó Raghallaigh.  Illustrated by John McCloskey; Edited by Breandán Ó Conaire.  Cló Mhaigh Eo.

These are some of the contents of the next shipment coming from Ireland:

The men will talk to me: Galway interviews by Ernie O’Malley.
Edited by Cormack K.H. O’Malley and Cormac Ó Comhraí.
Mercier Press.

Nicola Gordon Bowe. Harry Clarke: The life and work.  New edition.
The History Ireland Press.

Ciaran Carson: Exchange Place. 
Blackstaff Press.

Tomás O’Crohan. The Islander: A translation of An t-Oileánach by Gerry Bannister and David Sowby.
Gill and Macmillan.

Elizabeth Prendergast and Helen Sheridan.  Jubilee Nurse: Voluntary district nursing in Ireland, 1890-1974.
Wolfhound Press.