In the Sound Archive of the National Folklore Collection, we have a wide range of audio material and carriers, from wax cylinders, acetate discs, open reels, to more recent carriers such as MP3s, DATs. Today we’ll speak about the wax cylinders we have at the NFC. While most of the collection was recorded by staff members, we have also received a lot of material from generous donors over the years. Feis Ceoil Belfast 1898 programme, from the ITMA Among the earliest recordings we have, donated to us from the Feis Ceoil, are recordings from the Feis Ceoil held in Belfast in 1898. The inaugural F ..read more

UCD Archives holds many memoirs and accounts of individuals involved in the events of the Irish revolution. Blaze away with your little gun: memories of three jails is an account by Maighréad and Siobhán de Paor of their experiences in three prisons, Tralee, Kilmainham and the North Dublin Union in 1923. It was written from memory in the 1960s. UCDA P140, cover Blaze away with your little gun was deposited in UCD Archives in 1994 by Dr Maurice Moynihan. Maighréad and Siobhán de Paor were from Tralee, Co. Kerry. They were cousins of Moynihan’s mother, Mary Moynihan née Power. The Moynihans and ..read more

Donagh MacDonagh (1912-1968) was the son of Tipperaryman Thomas MacDonagh (1878-1916), Irish poet and playwright, who lectured in English here at UCD. The proud Thomas, according to the poet Anthony Cronin in a review of Donagh’s poetry collection Dublin made me and no little town “could often be seen, kilted and smiling, wheeling baby Don around Dublin in his pram; behaviour unheard of, for a father, in those days”. Thomas wrote letters to his infant son, one saying “I must myself formally congratulate you on having such a mother. You are the most fortunate child in the world, as I am the mos ..read more

Welcome to the second blog post on the art of the printer’s mark. Let’s begin with a refresher on what a printer’s mark, or device, is – a printer’s device refers to an identifying mark which can be found inside a book, either on the title page, the colophon, or occasionally at the end of a book. Typically this mark consists of a combination of images and texts, both decorative and practical. Printing houses depended on this mark as their brand, more so than bindings, since in previous centuries it wasn’t unusual for a book to be rebound multiple times over the course of its life. Below we’ll ..read more

The Papers of Dermot Nally consist of 36 boxes of material deposited by the Nally family in UCD Archives between 2012 and 2022. The Downing Street Declaration Papers are a series of papers within the larger Dermot Nally Collection. The series amounts to one box of papers relating to talks between the UK and Irish Governments that culminated in the Downing Street Declaration (Joint Declaration) issued on 15 December 1993 by John Major, UK Prime Minister, and Albert Reynolds, Taoiseach, at 10 Downing Street. The series has been catalogued and digitised and is available to view in the UCD Archive ..read more

As the month of January draws to a close, we are fast approaching Saint Bridget’s Day on 1st February, which in Irish tradition marks the first day of spring. It is around this time of year that the calving season begins, and Saint Bridget herself is considered the patron saint of cattle in Irish tradition. The saint is often associated with a particular cow in the folk imagination and in some narratives, as in the following account from the National Folklore Collection, this cow is identified as the legendary Glas Gaibhneach (or in this case the “Glas Gaimhneach”): Bhí bó ag naomh Brígidh d ..read more

On the 10 October 1925, an advertisement in the Irish Times gave notice of an upcoming sale at Bennett & Son Auctioneers and Valuers, 6 Upper Ormond Quay, Dublin. Under the auctioneer’s hammer was ‘A highly important and valuable collection of works of art moved from Carton Co. Kildare…including – 8,000 ounces of silver plate…a gallery of paintings of considerable merit…coloured prints, old French and English furniture, tapestries, continental and European porcelain, French gold and jewelled boxes, bijouterie, rare Irish coins, badges and antiquities …; also the Library of scarce and inte ..read more

Félire Oénguso, or, The Martyrology of Óengus (UCD-OFM Ms A7) is a register of saints and their feast days. It is one of the series of Irish language “A” manuscripts transferred to UCD Archives by the Irish Franciscans under the terms of the UCD-OFM Partnership Agreement. It is available to view online on the Irish Script On Screen website at the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies. Óengus mac Óengobann was an Irish bishop who lived in the first quarter of the ninth century and is generally held to be the author of the Félire Óengusso (and possibly of the Martyrology of Tallaght, UCD-OFM Ms A ..read more

Ní haon rud beag é céad bliain d’aois a bhaint amach agus cé gur bhailigh Coimisiún Béaloideasa Éireann cuid mhór ó lucht na seanaoise, is mór an rud é fós aois an chéid a fheiceáil i measc aois na bhfaisnéiseoirí. Sin a bhí i gceist le Síle Bean Uí Shíothcháin ó Ghleann Cotáin, Co. Chiarraí, ar bhailigh Tadhg Ó Murchú ábhar uaithi in 1940. Níl a haois an-soiléir, déanann Ó Murchú 94 bliana a mharcáil di ar an méid a bhailigh sé uaithi in 1940, ach deirtear leis na híomhánna a ghlac Tomás Ó Muircheartaigh bliain ina dhiaidh sin gur 100 bliain a bhí aici. Seo mar a dhéanann Ó Murchú cur síos ui ..read more

In a recent article for the Irish Times, Rosita Boland highlighted some of the menus for dinner dances and other special functions attended by her parents in the period 1960 – 1983. Although many of us have been to formal dinners (and know the well-rehearsed ‘beef or salmon’ jokes that crop up during wedding season) menu cards are a piece of ephemera that can be easily overlooked. This is particularly true in library and archival settings, where glitzier items more often demand a reader’s attention. Menus however, as Boland so clearly showed her readers, are little time-capsules that can tell ..read more