Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1975-2005 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
2 standard archival boxes
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Journalist, author, bibliophile and aviator Michael O’Toole was born in 1938 in Hospital, County Limerick. He was educated by the Presentation Sisters and the De La Salle Brothers and then in the Polytechnic in Central London. He was a postgraduate student of literature at Trinity College, Dublin.
O’Toole worked as a journalist with the Limerick Weekly Echo, Leinster Leader, Limerick Leader and Limerick Chronicle before joining the staff of the Irish Press Group of Newspapers in Dublin. Here he worked as a senior reporter, aviation correspondent (during which time he learned to fly), news editor, features writer and columnist, winning a national award for his writing. He was a long time ‘Dubliner’s Diary’ columnist with the Evening Press. He also worked for the Daily Telegraph, RTÉ and the BBC and was Ireland correspondent for The Tablet for a number of years.
Following the closure of the Irish Press Newspapers, O’Toole was appointed as a columnist in the Evening Herald and also contributed to the ‘Irishman’s Diary’ in the Irish Times. His rich and varied journalistic career is aptly captured in his best-selling book, More Kicks than Pence (Swords: Poolbeg Press Ltd, 1992).
Although he lived in Dublin, O’Toole never forgot his Limerick roots. He had a holiday home in Kilkee in Co. Clare, from where he paid frequent visits to Limerick. He was deeply interested in the Limerick writer, Kate O’Brien (1897-1974), particularly her early career as a playwright and her journalistic work. He championed the resurgence in interest in Kate O’Brien as one of the most important and influential Irish writers of the twentieth century. He wrote and broadcast on her work, wrote the foreword to the 1994 reissue of Presentation Parlour by Poolbeg and was actively involved in the annual Kate O’Brien Weekend in Limerick.
In the early 1990s, O’Toole began the compilation of a Kate O’Brien bibliography and collaborated with her long-term friend Lorna Reynolds, who at the time was working on a biography of Kate O’Brien. Regrettably, both died before the work could be published. O’Toole’s second book, Cleared for Disaster: Ireland’s Most Horrific Air Crashes, was published posthumously by Mercier in 2006.
Michael O’Toole died on 17 April 2000 at the age of sixty-one. At the time of his death, he had been married for over 30 years to journalist and communications consultant Maureen Browne, with whom he had a daughter, Orla and two sons, Feargal and Justin.
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Donated to the University of Limerick by Maureen Browne on 16 September 2014.
Content and structure area
Scope and content
This collection contains documents collected and accumulated by Michael O’Toole while compiling a bibliography of works by Kate O’Brien and works written about her. The material includes interview notes, correspondence, writings, draft bibliographies, photographs and ephemera.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Most records have been retained, except for duplicates and items unrelated to Kate O’Brien, which have been returned to the donor. The returned duplicates include copies of items of which the originals can be found in other collections in the Special Collections and Archives Department. These items have been identified in the catalogue.
Accruals
No accruals are expected.
System of arrangement
The collection has been arranged into seven sub-series by document type. Series 1 contains notes taken by Michael O’Toole during interviews with people associated with Kate O’Brien. Series 2 contains correspondence conducted by Michael O’Toole in the course of his bibliographic research. This series has been further divided into four sub-series by correspondent. Series 3 contains research material collected by Michael O’Toole and includes writings by Kate O’Brien as well as published and unpublished works about Kate O’Brien. Series 4 contains draft bibliographies compiled by Michael O’Toole in the early stages of his research. Series 5 contains material relating to events commemorating or otherwise connected to Kate O’Brien, including the annual Kate O’Brien weekend and a reception to mark the donation of the Kate O’Brien Papers (P12) to University of Limerick in 2005. Series 6 contains photographs of Kate O’Brien and her home in Boughton. Series 7 contains Kate O’Brien-related ephemera.
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Unrestricted access to most items. A number of items contain personal information relating to people living or presumed living and are closed to protect individual privacy. These items have been identified in the descriptive catalogue. In the case of letters, redacted versions of closed items have been made available in the relevant folders.
Conditions governing reproduction
Standard copyright regulations apply to all items. For photocopying or reproducing material, please consult with the staff.
Language of material
- Béarla
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Paper documents and photographs in good condition.
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
This collection originally contained photocopies provided by Lorna Reynolds to Michael O’Toole of Kate O’Brien’s Distinguished Villa: A Play in Three Acts (London: Ernest Benn Limited, 1926) and a scrapbook compiled by Mary O’Neill containing press cuttings relating to Distinguished Villa. The original items of which the copies were made are available in the Lorna Reynolds Papers under P74/4/1/15 and P74/4/3/1, respectively. Also originally included in this collection were copies of Kate O’Brien’s last will and testament and related codicil. These items can be found in the Kate O’Brien collection under P12/6/2/1/1 and P12/6/2/1/2.
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Material relating to Kate O’Brien, including letters and manuscripts, can be found in the Kate O’Brien Papers (P12), O’Mara Papers (P40) and Lorna Reynolds Papers (P74). Further material relating to Kate O’Brien is held at the McCormick Library of Special Collections, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA. This includes both manuscripts and published material, consisting of novels, plays, short stories, articles, talks and letters. In addition, the National Library of Ireland holds drafts of some of Kate O’Brien’s plays and short stories with related correspondence.
Notes area
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Description control area
Description identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
This description follows guidelines based on ISAD(G) 2nd edition, 2000; Irish Guidelines for Archival Description, 2009; National Council on Archives: Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997; and EAP Guidance on Data Protection for Archive Services, 2018.
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Archivist's note
Papers arranged and described by Anna-Maria Hajba in June 2025.