Bound hardback volume containing a typescript entitled My Memories, written by Julia Cecilia Harris née Ryan and dedicated to her children and grandchildren, together with a card identifying the names of the memoir’s donors and date of donation. The title page of the volume is dated 17 March 1926 while the last page is dated 19 March 1926. A footnote on p. 8 suggests that the writing of the original manuscript was under way by 1925. In addition, some pages were added as an afterthought in 1927 before the document was bound. Typing is uniform throughout the text, including a much later dedication of January 1945, which reads ‘To Arthur [Arthur James Littledale], from Mummie [Mary Josephine Littledale née Harris] With all my love’. The uniformity of the typescript suggests that the document was typed and bound post 1945. There is also a handwritten dedication on a page preceding the title page ‘For my darling Christopher [Tugendhat], from his devoted Mother, Máire [Tugendhat née Littledale], grand-daughter of the author of these memories. And for his descendants.’ This dedication is dated 29 March 1972 and it is likely that the original manuscript was typed and bound by Máire Tugendhat in that year. The memoir, which narrates Julia Harris’s life events in considerable detail, provides exceptional insights into the life of the prosperous Roman Catholic middle class in Ireland in the second half of the nineteenth century, Ireland’s status as part of the British Empire and the violent events which led to its emergence as an independent nation in the early twentieth century.
Harris, Julia Cecilia née Ryan (1855-1933)
Journal kept by Harriet Marshall née Swayne during a voyage from Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India with her two children to visit her in-laws in England and Ireland. The journal commences on 9 January 1847 with her arrival in Calcutta, where she spends the rest of the month waiting for the commencement of the next leg of her journey on board the vessel Alfred. While in Calcutta, she visits old friends and old scenes, having lived there eight years previously: ‘I had left Calcutta a child and returned a Woman and a Mother, how little had I fancied when I bade it farewell that I should return thus.’
The bulk of the journal is kept on board Alfred and contains descriptions of Harriet's fellow passengers, daily life on the vessel and the grinding monotony of long sea voyages. There are squabbles among children and endless quarrels among passengers, particularly women. Harriet herself becomes embroiled in a hostile exchange of words with the ship's captain, Edward Wall, who makes a derogatory comment about doctors, unaware that Harriet's husband is an army surgeon.
Remarkably, Harriet does not suffer from sea sickness even in the roughest of weathers, and has no patience for those who do. She does, however, regret having allowed herself ‘to be talked into taking a Cabin below [deck]’, where the air is stale as the port holes can only rarely be opened. She also regrets having chosen to travel by sea and concludes that ‘I will undergo any inconvenience & rough travelling rather than come back by sea to India[.] in an Overland trip there is something stirring every day, but here we breathe an impure atmosphere & when we do go upstairs it is only to walk up & down… nothing stirring but the ship’.
Alfred arrives on the island of Saint Helena on 30 March and the passengers get to enjoy a rare break on land. On 31 March they make an excursion around the island, which Harriet describes in great detail, including her disappointment at the shabby state of Napoleon Bonaparte's home. The journal ends with an entry made on 1 April as Alfred weighs anchor and leaves St Helena for England. Harriet's last lines read: ‘now I must go on with my Journal on sheets of Paper till we arrive in England.’ These loose sheets do not appear to have survived, and the fate of any of Harriet's other journals is unknown.
The journal is a useful research source for life in the service of the British Empire and the challenges of ocean travel. More broadly, it provides interesting insights into the lives of women and children in the nineteenth century and the societal mores that defined and separated the sexes.
Marshall, Harriet Susan née Swayne (1826-1909)This collection comprises musical notations of jigs, reels, hornpipes, mazurkas, flings, gallops, quadrilles, lancers, schottisches, mazurkas and waltzes popular in Ireland at the turn of the twentieth century.
McCarthy, John (1885-1966), Irish traditional musicianThis collection contains invoices, receipts and some related correspondence from wholesalers, specialist providers and other commercial outlets mainly in Limerick city and county, but also in Dublin and England accrued by John McCarthy in his role as farmer, publican and baker. The documents date from the time of the Irish War of Independence (1919-1921) and Irish Civil War (1922-1923) and reveal the way in which these conflicts interfered with commerce and trade and the availability of certain goods such as sugar and flour. It also provides insights into the commercial life of the country in its first years of independence, the cost of goods, the range of commercial outlets available and the rise of the large department stores.
McCarthy, John (1885-1966), Irish traditional musician
Black and white negative of the John Flynn Showband on the steps of the plane at Shannon Airport.
Shannon Development
Black and white negative of the John Flynn Showband on the steps of the plane at Shannon Airport.
Shannon DevelopmentMembership lists, correspondence, account books, financial reports, minutes, statements and press releases relating to The Ancient Guild of Incorporated Brick and Stonelayers’ Trade Union, Woodworkers and Plasterers’ Trade Union, Construction Industry Federation, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Limerick Building Trades Group, SIPTU and other trade unions and union activities (1962-1998); rules, correspondence, bills, receipts and financial reports relating to the Mechanics’ Institute (1882-1996); constitutions and policy statements, press statements, speeches, membership lists, minutes, financial statements, election manifestos, correspondence, pamphlets and posters relating to the Democratic Socialist Party (1980-1994); minutes, reports, statements, accounts and correspondence relating to the Labour Party (1965-1997); electoral material and correspondence relating to Kemmy’s Dáil terms and electoral campaigns (1977-1997); correspondence, speeches, press releases, minutes and appointment diaries relating to Kemmy’s activities as Alderman and Mayor (1974-1997); appeals, petitions and other correspondence relating to Kemmy’s constituency work (1967-1997); articles and draft articles, research material (including nineteenth-century documents) and correspondence relating to Kemmy’s historical and literary activities; and photographs, artwork, correspondence and a small number of other items of personal nature.
Kemmy, Seamus (Jim) (1936-1997), Irish socialist politicianThis collection contains material relating to J. M. O’Neill’s career as a writer, including drafts and proofs of his plays and novels, press cuttings, publicity material and correspondence. A thesis discussing the significance of O’Neill’s work in the context of Irish writing is also included.
O’Neill, Jeremiah Michael (1921-1999), novelist and playwrightJune 1917 issue of The Irishman.
Daly Family of Limerick CityJanuary 1924 issue of The Irish World and American Industrial Liberator.
Daly Family of Limerick City