Here is a selection of quick phone photos of this week’s new arrivals:

Music and Society in Cork, 1700-1900, by Susan O’Regan. Cork University Press, 2018.

Poema de Hibernia: A Jacobite Latin Epic on the Williamite Wars, edited by Pádraig Lenihan and Keith Sidwell. Irish Manuscripts Commission, 2018.

Alfie: The Life and Times of Alfie Byrne, by Trevor White. Penguin Ireland, 2017.

Cold Iron: Aspects of the Occupational Lore of Irish Fishermen. By Bairbre Ní Fhloinn. Four Courts Press, 2018.

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’.

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

The rediscovery of Irish song books on our shelves…

With the transfer of music books from the Hesburgh Library to the new Music Library in O’Neill Hall, songbooks and books on Irish music that are more appropriately housed with the Irish Collection have been transferred to the Hesburgh Special Collections.  Among these books are collections of ballads (without music notation) such as the many books published by Waltons of Dublin, and also a selection of sheet music published outside Ireland.

In the examples below, click on the images to open up a better view.

 A Cycle of Irish Song, by Alfred L. Greaven. 

Including: Erin’s National Anthem (Gaelic and English),
Dark Rosaleen,
March of the Gael,
Con to Eileen,
My Own Land,
Songs of Our Land.

Dublin, James Duffy and Co., 1900.

Tho only other  U.S. copy listed on WorldCat is in Villanova University.  

I have found no information about the author other than the fact that he was a priest, and is listed in the National Library of Ireland’s catalogue also as author of a book, Irish Violin Makers: Some Brief Notes, published in Dublin by Gill, 1911.

The note accompanying the book, donated by the Rev. Greacen, expresses the hope that the songs will be ‘taken up loyally by our National Societies, A.O. Hibernians, Irish National Foresters, and all who are working for “Faith and Fatherland”‘.

The anthem included here, ‘Erin’s National Anthem’, includes the music and verses in English by Rev. Alfred Greaven (referred to in the Irish text as An t-Athair A. Ua Gríbhthín), and the Irish translation, ‘Amhrán Buadha na h-Éireann’ by Andrew O’Duffy.

Walton’s, Boosey and Pigott

Books such as Irish Fireside Songs published by Walton’s generally have no date information, but as Walton’s Music was founded in the early 1920s, we know that they were produced since then.  Irish Fireside Songs was a series of pamphlets, with covers in different colors, and selections of songs (words only), on different themes. At a cost of fourpence, or four times the cost of a daily newspaper, they were inexpensive, and quite ephemeral.

Another Walton’s series, Sing an Irish Song, recalls the Waltons-sponsored program on Raidio Éireann, presented by Leo Maguire from 1952 until RTÉ ended its sponsored programmes in 1981.

Of the sheet music that arrived from the music collection, many are songs composed and published outside Ireland, publications by British music publisher Boosey include ‘Mavourneen’, words by George Weatherly, music by Florence Aylward. . Other songs include ‘Husheen’ and ‘Come Back to Erin’.  The ‘Mavourneen’ score is very rare, and our copy is possibly the only one in America.

A very rare Dublin publication, this time from Pigott & Co., is shown at the top of the page. The Comic Irish Lancers on Popular Irish Songs arranged by Leonard Gautier.  Played by Mr. Liddel’s Viceregal Band (top of page), the music is an arrangement of the following songs by Percy French, Valentine Vousden and W. S. Ashcroft: ‘Mat Hanigan’s Aunt’, ‘The Crockery Ware’, ‘The Irish Jaunting Car’, ‘Slattery’s Mounted Fut’, ‘The Night that Miss Cooney Eloped’, ‘Solders Three’, ‘Irish Invitation’ and ‘Phil the Fluter’s Ball’.  This, again, is undated, and so we know that it cannot have been earlier than 1867 when John Riddell was appointed director of the Viceregal Band. Pigott & Co. were publishing music and songs from about 1866 also, and my best guess is that it was published between 1870 and 1890.

Color is unusual in these sheet music covers, although many have ornate writing and some have drawings or photographs.

Also among the Irish publications, this time from Walton’s, and probably from the 1930s, is ‘Óró Sé do Bheatha Bhaile’,  with Englsh translation: ‘Hail to Thee Fair Isle’ by Joseph M. Crofts. Crofts is the author of the English translation — the song is a traditional song, adapted by Pádraig Mac Piarais. Once again, a search through union catalog WorldCat shows only one other copy, this time in the National Library of Ireland.

The songs in these books might never be performed again, but the songbooks and sheets are very interesting artifacts from their time.

The titles listed (in LC order) are all in the circulating collection of the Hesburgh Library. Titles marked with the location “New Book Area” are there temporarily. This area is on the second floor.

Burke, Tom. Messines to Carrick Hill: Writing Home from the Great War. Mercier Press, 2017. D 640 .B885 2017

O’Higgins, Laurie. The Irish Classical Self: Poets and Poor Scholars in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. OUP, 2017. DA 947.3 O35 2017

Eötvös báró, József.  Poverty in Ireland 1837: Szegénység Irlandban : a Hungarian’s view. Phaeton, 2015.  DA 950.5 .E58 2015

Lysaght, D. R. O’Connor. From the GPO to the Winter Palace: How a workers’ revolution was lost and how a workers’ revolution was won. Irish Labour History Society, 2016. DA 962 .L97 2016

O’Brien, Paul. Havoc: The Auxiliaries in Ireland’s War of Independence. Collins Press, 2017. DA 962 .O27 2017

O’Connell, Michael. In Search of Truth: British Justice and Collusion in Northern Ireland. Collins Press, 2017. DA 963 .O26 2017

Regan, Nell. Helena Molony: A Radical Life. Arlen House, 2017. DA 965 .M55 R44 2017 (New Book Area)

McDonald, Theresa. A Guide to Archaeological and Historical Sites on Achill, Achillbeg and the Corraun Peninsula. I.A.S. Publications, 2016. DA 990 .A3 M34 2016

Barlow, Matthew. Griffintown: Identity and Memory in an Irish Diaspora Neighbourhood. UBC Press, 2017. F 1054.5 .M89 I6 2017

Higgins, Michael D. When Ideas Matter: Speeches for and Ethical Republic. Head of Zeus, 2016. HN 400.3 .A8 H54 2016

O’Brien, Sarah. Linguistic Diasporas, Narrative and Performance: The Irish in Argentina. Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. (Also online.) JV 7712 .O27 2017

Donahoe, Amanda E. Peacebuilding through Women’s Community Development: Wee Women’s Work in Northern Ireland. Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. JZ 5584 .N75 2017

O’Sullivan, Eilís. Ascendancy Women and Elementary Education in Ireland: Educational Provision for Poor Children. Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. (Also online.) LA 669.62 .S855 2017

O’Connor, Anne. Translation and Language in Nineteenth-century Ireland: A European Perspective. Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. PB 1214 .O26 2017

O’Leary, Philip. An Underground Theatre: Major Playwrights in the Irish Language 1930-80. UCD Press, 2017. PB 1325 .O448 2017 (New Book Area)

Langlois, Christopher. Samuel Beckett and the Terror of Literature. Edinburgh UP, 2017. PQ 2603 .E378 Z7557 2017

Métayer, Mathieu. Une Lecture Maçonnique du Portrait de Dorian Gray. Éditions Dervy, 2017. PR 5819 .M48 2017 (New Book Area)

Bennett, Michael Y. Philosophy and Oscar Wilde. Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. PR 5827 .P5 P45 2017

Moorjani, Angela B., et al. (eds). Beckett in Conversation, “Yet Again”: Recontres avec Beckett, “Encore”. Koninklijke Brill, 2016. PR 6003 .E282 Z4586 v. 28

Lewis, Tasha. Illustrating Joyce’s Ulysses in Eight Weeks. Bookbaby, 2016. PR 6019 .O9 U67449 2016

McBreen, Joan. Map and Atlas. Salmon Poetry, 2017. PR 6025 .C5 A6 2017

Joslin, Lyndon W. Count Dracula Goes to the Movies: Stoker’s Novel Adapted. McFarland, 2017. PR 6037 .T617 D784 2017

Banville, John. Time Pieces: A Dublin Memoir. Hachette, 2016. PR 6052 .A57 Z46 2016

Hogan, Desmond. The History of Magpies.  PR 6058 .O346 H57 2017. (New Book Area)

McCabe, Patrick. Hello and Goodbye: Twin Epistles of Gothic Dread that will Turn your World Upside Down. Quercus, 2013. PR 6063 .C32 H45 2013

Murphy, Richard. In Search of Poetry. Clutag Press, 2017. PR 6063 .U735 I5 2017

Boyne, John. The Heart’s Invisible Furies. Hogarth, 2017. PR 6102 .O96 H43 2017c

French, Tana. Broken Harbor. Penguin, 2013. PR 6016 .R457 B76 2013

Gillis, Alan A. Scapegoat and Other Poems. PR 6107 .I47 A6 2016

Harris, Susan Cannon. Irish Drama and Other Revolutions: Playwrights, Sexual Politics, and the International Left, 1892-1964. Edinburgh UP, 2017. PR 8789 .C36 2017

Suhr-Sytxma, Nathan. Poetry, Print, and the Making of Postcolonial Literature. Cambridge UP, 2017. (Also online.) PR 9082 .S84 2017

Bolton, David. Conflict, Peace and Mental Health: Addressing the Consequences of Conflict and Trauma in Northern Ireland. Manchester UP, 2017.  RC 552 .T7 B65 2017

Books posing together for a photo.

Bookshops display bestsellers and attractive fiction, making book selection easy and pleasant. Academic libraries, on the other hand, have fiction integrated with literary criticism and it’s not always easy to just walk in and find a novel to read.  Notre Dame’s Hesburgh Library has a great collection of Irish fiction, but identifying authors and books in the catalog takes time.

So this list is a selection of Irish fiction available for loan in the Hesburgh Library.

Banville, John. The Blue Guitar.
NY: Knopf, 2015. (Review)
PR 6052 .A57 B595 2015.

Barrett, Colin.  Young Skins.
Dublin : Stinging Fly, 2013. (Review)
PR 6102 .A7745 Y68 2013

Barry, Kevin. Beatlebone.
New York: Doubleday, 2015. (Review)
PR 6102 .A7833 B43 2015

Baume, Sara. Spill Simmer Falter Wither.
Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015. (Review)
PR 6102 .A86 S65 2016

Bolger, Dermot. Lonely Sea and Sky.
Dublin: New Island Books, 2016. (Review.)
PR 6052 .O384 L66 2016

Bruen, Ken. The Guards
Dingle: Brandon, 2001. (Article on Bruen)
PR 6052 .R785 G93 2001

Conlon, Evelyn. Telling : New and Selected Stories
Belfast : Blackstaff, 2000.  (Review)
PR 6053 .O454 T45 2000

Costello, Mary. Academy Street
Edinburgh : Canongate, 2014. (Review)
PR 6103 .O85 A63 2014

Donoghue, Emma.  The Wonder.
NY: Little, Brown, 2016. (Review)
PR 6054 .O547 W67 2016

Duffy, Austin. This Living and Immortal Thing
London : Granta Books, 2016. (Review)
PR 6104 .U34 T4 2016

Dunne, Catherine. The Years that Followed.
New York : Touchstone, 2016. (Publisher website)
PR 6054 .U5536 Y43 2016

Enright, Anne.  The Green Road.
NY: Norton, 2015. (Review)
PR 6055 .N73 G74 2015

Howard, Paul (Ross O’Carroll-O’Kelly). Rhino what You did Last Summer.
Dublin : Penguin Ireland, 2009. (Interview with the author)
PR 6108 .O93 R45 2009

Jordan, Neil. The Drowned Detective.
London : Bloomsbury, 2016. (Review)
PR 6060 .O6255

McBride, Eimear. A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing.
Minneapolis : Coffee House Press. (Review)
PR 6113 .C337 G57 2014

McKinty, Adrian. Dead I Well may be.
New York : Scribner, 2003. (Review)
PS 3563 .C38322 D43 2003

McNamee, Eoin. 2014. Blue is the Night.
London: Faber, 2014. (Review)
PR 6063 .C63 B56 2014

Neville, Stuart. The Twelve.
London: Harvill Secker, 2009. (Review)
PR 6114 .E943 T84 2009

Ní Chonchúir, Nuala. The Closet of Savage Mementoes.
Dublin: New Island, 2014. (Review)
PR 6114 .I23 C58 2014

O’Brien, Edna. The Little Red Chairs.
NY: Little, Brown, 2015. (Review)
PR 6065 .B7 L58 2016.

Ó Cadhain, Máirtín. Graveyard Clay.
New Haven: Yale UP, 2016. (Review)
PB1399.O28 C7413 2016 (note location — this is with the Irish language books on the 8th floor.)

O’Farrell, Maggie. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox.
London : Headline Review, 2007. (Review)
PR 6065 .F36 V36 2007

Parsons, Julie. The Guilty Heart
London: Macmillan, 2003.
PR 6066 .A7177 G95 2003

Ryan, Donal. The Spinning Heart.
Hanover, NH: Steerforth Press, 2012. (Review)
PR 6118 .Y354 S68 2014

Tóibín, Colm. Nora Webster.
NY: Scribner, 2014. (Review)
PR 6070 .O455 N67 2014

Newly-published books continue to arrive from our vendors in Ireland and the U.S. during the summer.

Here is a selection of titles of the Irish-published books that arrived in parcels since May:

(Dust-jackets shown here are from books just in the door and not yet cataloged.)

The Fenian Cycle in Irish and Scots-Gaelic Literature.
Joseph J. Flahive. Cork Studies in Celtic Literatures, 2017. PB 1397 .F5 F56 2017

Rebel Kerry: From the Pages of ‘The Kerryman’.
Simon Brouder, ed. Mercier Press, 2017. DA 962 .R43 2017 (currently shelved in the New Book Area, first floor).

Time Pieces: A Dublin Memoir.
John Banville, Paul Joyce. Hachette, 2016. PR 6052 .A57 46 2016

Douglas Hyde: The Professor of Irish who became President of Ireland: Proceedings of Seminar Held to Explore Aspects of the Life and Achievements of Douglas Hyde, the First President of Ireland.
Attracta Halpin, Áine Mannion, eds., National University of Ireland, 2016. DA 965 .H9 D885 2016

Selected Poems
A.E. (George William Russell). Daniel Mulhall. Swan River Press, 2017. PR 6035 .U7 A6 2017 (currently in the New Book Area, first floor).

To commemorate the 150th anniversary of A.E.’s birth, Swan River Press is pleased to reissue this career-spanning collection of poems from a key artist of the Celtic Revival. This volume includes selections from The Earth Breath, Voices of the Stones, The House of the Titans, and others, introducing a new generation to Ireland’s foremost mystical poet. – Swan River Press

Rise.
Elaine Feeney. Salmon Poetry, 2017. PR 6106 .E3445 .R57 2017

Hopdance.
Stewart Parker. Ed., Marilynn Richtarik. Lilliput Press, 2017. Special Collections (MR) Medium PR 6066 .A69 H66 2017.

The Therapy House.
July Parsons. New Island, 2017. Special Collections (MR) Medium PR 6066 .A7177 T54 2017.

The last two books are part of the Irish Fiction Collection, and are available for reading in the Special Collections Reading Room.

A digital project can be as simple as a collection of texts scanned and assembled on a website or as sophisticated as a collection where digital technology is used  to examine and manipulate text, images, maps, video and data.

Having received a number of inquiries on this subject, I compiled this list, a selection of digital humanities projects and digital exhibits. I haven’t attempted to describe or categorize them — that will be a future list!

There are many large databases on the web: ongoing bibliographical and indexing projects such as ‘Irish History Online’, and large text repositories such as CELT. These will be listed in a separate blog post, and they are routinely listed in library research guides. This list focuses on smaller digital projects and on digital exhibits.

The illustration above, Women of 1916, is part of an unfinished digital exhibit based on the 2016 Hesburgh Special Collections exhibit, Easter 1916: The Irish Rebellion. This points to the fact that not only are there many substantive exhibitions in libraries, archives and museums throughout the world, but the digital exhibits, which range from a series of photographs and information cards to a searchable database with text, photographs and even more sophisticated digital features, are not very easy to discover.

Digital Humanities Projects:

Classic Irish Plays –  A curated collection of digital scripts of plays by Irish playwrights.

Collection of Irish Airs, Marches and Dance Tunes…by F. Roche, Vol. I, 101-199 (Interactive Scores) – ITMA, the Irish Traditional Music Archive.

Contemporary Irish Writing – This platform currently hosts two projects: Joyce Today and 50 Irish Books.

The Dion Boucicault Collection (University of Southern Florida)

The Dublin Music Trade. Database of the music business in Dublin up to 1850.

The Dunn Family Collection: Francis O’Neill Cylinders.

Earlier Latin Manuscripts: Tools for studying the scripts of the oldest Latin manuscripts – A database of manuscripts written in Latin before the year 800.

The Foundations of Irish Culture: Irish Manuscripts on the Continent AD 600-AD 850 – A catalogue of Irish Manuscripts on the Continent AD 600 – AD 850

Irish Famine Archive – A curated collection of digitized documents containing eyewitness accounts of the Irish famine migration to Canada in 1847-1848.

Letters of 1916 – A crowd-sourced digital collection of letters written around the time of the Easter Rising.

Murals of Northern Ireland – A selection of digital images from the collection of Tony Crowley at Claremont College.

National Collection of Children’s Books – Database and catalogue of children’s books in Irish libraries.

Playography Ireland – Irish Playography and Playography na Gaeilge (Irish Theatre Institute).

Saint Patrick’s Confessio Hypertext Stack  (Royal Irish Academy).

Séamus Connolly Collection of Irish Music (Boston College).

Translation in 19th-Century Ireland – A database of translators and works of translation from nineteenth-century Ireland.

Digital Exhibitions.

The 1916 Rising: Personalities and Perspectives

1916: Weaving Public and Private Narratives.

Anna Haslam’s Minute Book 

Art and Revolution: The Work of Ernie O’Malley.

Building Modern Ireland

Documents Laid through the Decades

A Family At War: the Diary of Mary Martin

The Fleischmann Diaries.

Frongoch and 1916: Recreating a Lost Landscape.

A history of the Oireachtas Library.

Ireland and the Colonies.

Ireland and the Crown

Ireland and the Great War.

Jacob’s Biscuit Factory, 1916

Maps and mapping

Mental Health in 19^th century Ireland

The National Library of Ireland and the RDS Library: A Shared History

The Theft of the Irish Crown Jewels.

Treaty Exhibition

Yeats: The Life

In addition to the Letters of 1916 project listed above, other projects which have used crowd-sourcing include Duchas.ie, the Schools Collection of the National Folklore Collection, and Irish Speakers & the Empire City.

For further reading on digital humanities in Irish studies, see the Breac(2015) issue on digital humanities.

We have not digitized anything in our Irish theatre collections. While we have a great collection of theatre programs and scripts, much of this is in copyright.

But I have been watching with great interest the digital project of the plays of Dion Boucicault at the University of Southern Florida, and the potential it holds for scholars of Irish drama.

The Dion Boucicault Collection at USF Libraries is one of the largest Boucicault collections in the world. Under Matt Knight’s careful stewardship, selected works are displayed and contextualized in a clear and easily-navigated website.  The introduction explains that Dublin-born Boucicault was wary of publishing his plays for fear of piracy, and therefore few of his scripts exist in print.

The collection website lists fourteen plays of which ten are currently available on the site. These include The Shaughraun and Robert Emmet.  Selecting a play from the menu takes you to an introductory page with brief information on the play and its performance, and links to the digital items, in most cases a promptbook which can be viewed online or downloaded, and a transcript.

The promptbook for Marriage, for example, is described in the catalog as “typed pages with extensive notes from the stenographer and minor notes from the author”.

The Shaughraun section includes the most interesting content, with multiple promptbooks and photographs from various productions of the play.

After exploring the website, I sought more information on USF’s collection and sure enough I found a library finding aid, or archival description, of the Dion Boucicault Theatre Collection 1843-1887. Here we learn that the collection was originally bequeathed by Dion Boucicault to his widow Louise Thorndyke, and was sold a couple of times before being acquired by USF.

The collection consists of 27 boxes, and the finding aid provides a detailed list of contents.

I wish the website had a link to the finding aid and a brief explanation of the scope of the collection, and that the finding aid likewise provided some indication of the digital project. That would be of great assistance to people who stumble on either one.

I hope more collections will be digitized in a similar way, and and I expect to spend much time exploring this website as we learn to use our library’s digital exhibit facility.

A Volume of Weekly Freeman cartoons from the 1880s was recently added to our collection. The RBSC Blog has a brief description:

Recent Acquisition: Tenants, Evictions and Newspapers: a volume of cartoons from the Weekly Freeman

The cartoons may be viewed in the Reading Room of the Hesburgh Libraries’ Rare Books and Special Collections Department.