Anticipating the festival of St. Patrick and all things
Irish-related which we’ll be celebrating next month we decided to remind
ourselves of some of books on Ireland held in our Special Collections, some of
which have quite unique attributes. Sadly, it will be some time yet before you
can come and look at the real thing but the good news is that through wonderful
digitization initiatives, you can read the content of these books online now.
John Lynch’s Cambrensis Eversus, was published in 1662. He was a Catholic cleric, born in Galway but obliged to flee the city following the arrival of Cromwellian forces in 1652. Thereafter he seems to have spent his life on the continent, principally in France. Cambrensis Eversus is a refutation of a much earlier history of Ireland by the Welsh scholar, Geraldus Cambrensis or Gerald of Wales. A copy of his book, which portrayed Ireland as a primitive and barbaric country, had been republished in the early seventeenth century and was drawn on in political discourse during the turmoil of that period. Lynch’s book has been republished in later editions but the copy shown here is an original from 1662.
We have reason to think it
was in the possession of the first college librarian and Galway historian,
James Hardiman, as an inscription inside the book, outlining its importance, is
in a hand closely resembling that of Hardiman. The full text of the nineteenth
century edition of Cambrensis Eversus is available here.
A facsimile of the Book of Armagh, a manuscript dating from the early 9th century now held in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, was edited by John Gwynn and published in 1913.
The original
manuscript is not very large but this wonderful facsimile is an impressive work
of early 20th century Irish printing and publishing. The image here
is of its fine cover, beautifully decorated with Celtic motifs. The manuscript
contains much vital information relating to St. Patrick and to the relationship
between Armagh and Irish Christianity. It is easy to see the assertion of early
20th century Celtic Nationalism in this volume. Our volume also
includes an inscription significant to us in that it shows that the book was a
gift to Professor Joseph Pye, then Professor of Anatomy and Physiology, from
the son of John Gwynn, the book’s author. A digitized version of this work is available here
We are fortunate to hold a collection of books by and about Lady Augusta Gregory, nee Persse, whose portrait also hangs in our Archives and Special Collections Reading Room.
One of these items is the Kiltartan Wonder
Book, published for Lady Gregory by Maunsel in Dublin in 1910 and
illustrated by her daughter-in-law, Margaret. You can enjoy these lovely
illustrations online here.
Irish music always comes to the fore at this time of year. To close, we have a special item from our collections on this theme. Francis O’Neill was born in County Cork in 1828 but moved to Chicago as a young man, where he eventually rose to become Chief of Police there. His interest in Irish music led him to collect a vast collection of tunes from Irish people he met in the United States. He published Music of Ireland in 1903.
This lovely copy was donated to our library in 1970 from the collection of Fr. Michael J. Ryan. Fr. Ryan was born in the parish of Kilbeacanty in South Galway but spent most of his ministry in Australia where he died in 1969. Having never forgotten his native place he bequeathed this and a number of other items on Irish language and music to our Library. While looking forward to seeing Fr. Ryan’s fine edition of Music of Ireland you can see the book content here
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