Archive for October, 2017

If Blogs were Catalog(u)ed*

Posted on October 30, 2017 in Digital, Journals and Magazines, Media

When Dr. Melinda Grimsley-Smith was a PhD student at Notre Dame, she convinced me that it would be a good librarianly service to open a Twitter account and to routinely re-tweet posts that might interest graduate students. She was excited about archives, and she was enthusiastic about sharing information about collections and about exciting new projects.

 

I followed Melinda’s lead, initially following various archives and libraries and retweeting news of collections and exhibitions, tweeting inconsistently, with short bursts of enthusiasm. With the flurry of activity around the 1916 centenary, I learned that retweeting was a way to catalogue information, and I began to apprecate the role of the hashtag for organizing the twitterworld. (Such a pity that in order to type in Irish, I lost my keyboard’s hashtag.)

And now I wonder if Twitter-cataloguing could be the answer to my question about blogs.

Librarians organize information of all kinds,helping people sort through thousands of materials to identify information, books, journals or websites.  We archive websites and catalog online publications. We find ways to make our information available online.  But blogs seem to belong to a category that people discover either by serendipity or by word of mouth. The library cataloguedoesn’t seem appropriate for the informal format of the blog, so why not see how the social media can be used?

On Twitter, I found an Irish Blogs hashtag, but this does not address my needs, which are to tag blogs interesting to those with an academic interest in Irish studies, e.g. scholarly or newsy articles on Irish history, literature, politics, music, art, theatre etc.  I aim to curate, so that blogs included in my lists are up to date and to select in the same way as I would a journal or magazine subscription for the library. So my hashtag will be #IrishStudiesBlogs.

Scéalta Ealaíne. Irish Art Blog by Eoin Mac Lochlainn

 

So I think I’ll start a new hashtag and call it Irish Studies Blogs. Blogs I want to catalogue include Mise Ciara, a great blog for Irish language students, Scéalta Ealaíne, shown above, the blog of artist Eoin Mac Lochlainn, Mairekennedybooks, on Irish historical bibliography, and writers’ blogs such as that of Lia Mills.

‘S Mise Ciara, Seo mo Bhlag! Scríobh / Eat / Sleep 

 

Though I plan to include only blogs that are current, Deirdre Ní Chonghaile’s wonderful Amhráin Árann – Aran Songs begs to be listed.  This three-year blog (2012-14) is a collection of essays on the people, music and songs of the Aran Islands. From biographies of writers and singers to an essay on the provenance of the piano in the house where Somerville and Ross stayed, the blog, written in Irish and in English, is an online publication that should be available to anyone studying Irish music, and so needs to be archived and catalogued.

The blogs I am considering for my “Twitter Catalog” are listed below, and you can also see a preview of the Twitter-Catalogue for #IrishStudiesBlogs.

Literature and Writers

Rogha Gabriel

Crime Scene. A Blog by Louise Phillips

Irish Writing Blog

Women Rule Writer. Lit Blog of Nuala O’Connor/ Nuala Ní Chonchúir

Anti-Laureate of the People’s Republic of Cork 

Mary Morrissey. A Blog about Fiction and History

James Joyce Quarterly Blog

 

 

An Ghaeilge – The Irish Language

Included here are blogs on various topics, but written in Irish and therefore good for Irish language students to have available.

Hilary NY. Meascra i nGaeilge ó Nua Eabhrach — Nó pé áit ina bhfuilim! 

Mise Áine ag Rámhaille

Uathachas in Éirinn 

S Mise Ciara, Seo mo Bhlag!

Cúrsaí Staire. Aistí Ócáídeacha ar Stair, ar Staraithe, agus ar Scríobh na Staire

Smaointe Fánach Aonghusa

Rogha Gabriel

History

Cúrsaí Staire. Aistí Ócáídeacha ar Stair, ar Staraithe, agus ar Scríobh na Staire

Ciara Meehan. Historian, Author, Lecturer

MaireKennedyBooks

Books, Libraries and Archives

Books Ireland Blog

NLI Blog (blog of the National Library of Ireland)

John J. Burns Library’s Blog 

Manuscripts at Trinity

UCD Library Cultural Heritage Collections Blog

MaireKennedyBooks

ITMA Blog

Kennys Booktalk Blog

Music

ITMA Blog

Amhráin Árann – Aran Songs

Art

The Irish Art Blog

IMMA Blog

Scéalta Ealaíne. Irish Art Blog by Eoin Mac Lochlainn

Politics

The Cedar Lounge Revolution. For Lefties Too Stubborn to Quit

Slugger O’Toole

Irish Politics Forum

Jason O’Mahony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don’t know if this Twitter-catalogue idea will take, but if you come across a blog that would interest others in Irish studies, please add a tweet, or contact me at clements.22@nd.edu. Thanks!

 

*Though bilingual now in the English languages of both sides of the Atlantic, I’ve never become comfortable with the u-less ‘catalog’.

Poetry — What has arrived from Ireland?

Posted on October 13, 2017 in Uncategorized


Reviewing the titles of new poetry books, I came once more to the wonderful title of Paula Meehan’s 
Imaginary Bonnets with Real Bees in Them. I then discovered that I could listen to her lecture on a UCD Scholarcast.  

 

Image from the UCD Scholarcast Website.

New Irish poetry in the Hesburgh Library. 

Leland Bardwell. Them’s Your Mammy’s Pills, and Other Poems.   
Dedalus Press, 2015.
PR 6052 .A63 A6 2015

Mary Dorcey. To Air the Soul, Throw All the Windows Wide. New & Selected Poems.
Salmon Poetry, 2016.
PR 6054 .O674 A6 2016

Maighréad Medbh. Parvit of Agelast: A Fantasy in Verse.
Arlen House, 2016.
PR 6063 .E33 P37 2016

Paula Meehan. Geomantic.
Dedalus Press, 2016.
PR 6063 .E34 G46 2016

Geraldine Mitchell. Mountains for Breakfast.
Arlen House, 2017.
PR 6063 .I7883 A6 2017

John Montague. Second Childhood.
Gallery Press, 2017.
PR 6063 .O5 A6 2017

Paul Muldoon. Rising to the Rising.
Gallery Press, 2016.
PR 6063 .U367 A6 2016

Peter Pegnal. Bright Scarf: Love and Fear: Poem.
Lapwing, 2016.
PR 6066 .E48 A6 2016

Peter Sirr. Sway: Versions of Poems from the Troubadour Tradition.
Gallery Press, 2016.
PR 6069 .I67 A6 2016

Catherine Ann Cullen. The Other Now: New and Selected Poems.
Dedalus Press, 2016.
PR 6103 .U444 A6 2016

Kevin Higgins. Song of Songs 2.0: New and Selected Poems.
Salmon Poetry, 2017.
PR 6108 .I36 S66 2017

Alice Lyons. Speck: Poems. 2002-2006.
Lapwing, 2015.
PR 6112 .Y63 A6 2015

Geraldine Mills. Gold.
Little Island, 2016.
PR 6113 .I58 G65 2016

Matt Mooney. The Singing Wood: Poems. 
Galway Academic Press, 2017.
PR 6113 .O545 S56 2017

Doireann Ní Ghríofa. Oighear.
Coiscéim, 2017.
PB 1399 .N446 A6 2017

Séamus Barra Ó Súilleabháin. Beatha Dhónaill Dhuibh.
Cló Iar-Chonnacht, 2016.
PB 1400 .O784 A6 2016

Browsing through publishers’ websites will give you some more titles to look for in the library.

Arlen House

Dedalus Press

Gallery Press

Lapwing

Salmon Poetry

And here are some anthologies:

Best Loved Poems: Favourite Poems from the South of Ireland. Edited by Gabriel Fitzmaurice. Photography by John Reidy.
Currach Press, 2016.
PR 8850 .B47 2016

Between the Leaves: An Anthology of New Haiku Writing from Ireland. Edited by Anatoly Kudryavitsky.
Arlen House, 2016.
PR 8851 .B49 2016

The Deep Heart’s Core: Irish Poets Revisit a Touchstone Poem. Edited by Eugene O’Connell and Pat Boran. Forword by Bernard O’Donoghue.
Dedalus Press, 2017.
PR 8851 .D44 2017

Washing Windows? Irish Women Write Poetry: In Honour of Eavan Boland and Catherine Rose.  Edited and Devised by Alan Hayes.
Arlen House, 2017.
PR 8853 .”37 2017

The Future Always Makes Me So Thirsty: New Poets from the North of Ireland. Edited by Sinead Morrissey and Stephen Connolly.
Blackstaff Press, 2016.
PR 1228 .F88 2016