Last page of a letter from James Butler, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cashel to an unidentified group of gentlemen, urging them to exercise their vigilance and diligence 'to extirpate vice, & plant virtue & good morels [sic] that they may gain the Celestial Reward'. The missive incorporates a letter from Ellicebeth Swift addressed 'to all & every Clergymen [sic] in Care of souls within the Dioceses of Cashel & Emly', accusing them of ill treatment and threatening to make them 'dance & gallop in sich [sic] a manner that the Munster Lass in her Prime would not catch you till you pass the post at Mitchelstown' if they do not mend their ways. The letter constitutes a rare and useful account of relations between clergymen and parishioners within the Catholic Church in the archdiocese of Cashel and Emly from the female perspective.
UntitledThe O’Mara Papers comprise predominantly business and personal records created and generated by Stephen O’Mara Junior (1884-1959) in the course of his life. Material relating to his parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and siblings is perfunctory.
The business records cover mainly correspondence in O’Mara’s capacity as director of O’Mara’s Bacon Company and later as director of the Bacon Company of Ireland and do not encompass all operational aspects of the business. However the material provides an interesting view of the bacon industry in early 20th-century Ireland and its gradual decline from the 1930s onwards.
The personal records cover O’Mara’s political career, including his three terms as Mayor of Limerick from 1921 to 1923; the second Bond Drive to the United States, his subsequent imprisonment in 1922-1923 and the ensuing court case of 1927; and his later political involvement, particularly his role as a founding director of The Irish Press. His personal correspondence is extensive and illustrates O’Mara’s prominent role in the family as a provider of employment opportunities for the younger generations and as a generous source of financial support in times of hardship. Other material of note includes extensive correspondence and architectural drawings relating to Strand House, New Strand House and Ivy Bank House, homes of the O’Mara family.
One of the most significant aspects of the collection is material relating to the O’Brien family of Boru House, particularly the private correspondence of the novelist Kate O’Brien with her sisters, brother-in-law and nephew. The letters illuminate O’Brien’s method of writing, the creative process behind each of her novels and the ups and downs of her career as author. They also reveal her complete lack of financial acumen, her tendency to live wildly beyond her means, and her lifelong dependency on the fiscal good will of Anne and Stephen O’Mara. Of Kate O’Brien’s private life the letters reveal almost nothing, demonstrating a high degree of circumspectness and a tendency to compartmentalise various aspects of her life. The one rare exception is correspondence relating to her brief marriage and its aftermath in 1922-1925 which, while not revelatory as such, exposes a more vulnerable aspect of Kate’s personality.
The O’Brien material also contains correspondence to and from lesser known members of Kate O’Brien’s family, including her parents and her brothers Tom and Eric who died in 1918 and 1920, respectively. A small number of items relate to Michael O’Brien who died in institutional care in 1923. The identity of this individual has not been ascertained but he could possibly be Michael Alphonsus O’Brien who was born between 1888 and 1889 and is claimed to have died in infancy. Also of interest are letters from Austin Clarke to Anne O’Brien in 1916-1917 written in the early stages of the poet’s literary career, which reveal the fragility of his search for expression and sense of identity.
The material also comprises an extensive photographic record of the O’Mara and O’Brien families particularly in the 1920s and 1930s.
UntitledPosters, flyers, brochures, press cuttings, images and a recording relating to Shakram Dance Company’s dance works and performances.
UntitledThis collection comprises a scrapbook compiled by Charles Henry Gubbins and a number of loose items found inserted inside the book. The collection provides insights into the personal life of a humorous and sociable man and, more broadly, the rich cultural and sporting life of Munster in the last decades of the nineteenth century.
UntitledThis collection comprises a scrapbook compiled by Agnes Mary Gaffney and a number of loose items found inserted inside it. It provides insights into the life and lifestyle of the members of a prominent and politically influential Roman Catholic family and their role not only in the formation of the Irish republic but on the wider arena of Irish-American republicanism and the campaign for women’s rights.
UntitledThe material contains primarily correspondence, petitions and resolutions created and generated by Thomas Spring Rice during his political career.
UntitledPair of late Victorian and early Edwardian scrapbooks in Winona Barrington’s possession, containing manuscript poems and ditties, pen and ink drawings, watercolours and autographs.
UntitledThe collection comprises primarily correspondence between Frank Aiken, IRA Chief of Staff; Mr McAuliffe Acting Officer Commanding Limerick Brigade IRA; and Maurice Twomey Inspecting Officer. They are almost solely concerned with the reorganisation of the IRA command structure in Limerick, Clare and Kerry owing to the shortage of men and equipment during and following the Civil War.
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Bound hardback volume containing a diary kept sporadically by Henry William Massy as a young man about town, describing his professional and leisure activities and containing introspective reflections of his own shortcomings. The diary provides a lively and betimes poignant account of the life of a young man eager to advance in life but not quite possessed of the maturity to fulfil his ambitions. It provides glimpses of urban life of the professional classes in 1830s and 1840s Ireland and challenges the perceived rigid morality of the Victorian era by revealing Massy’s long-standing clandestine affair with Maria Cahill.
The diary commences in February 1839 with regular entries describing the weather, Henry’s daily professional and leisure activities, the books he is reading, the parties he attends and the visits he pays to his mistress, Maria Cahill. He castigates himself for his habit of getting up too late in the mornings, usually as a consequence of too much merriment the night before, and for smoking cigars in his office. However, most of his diary entries are upbeat and humorous in tone. On 15 March 1839 he mentions meeting ‘Mrs James Sadleir, who asked me to subscribe to a Lying-in-Hospital, which they are getting up here – I said I did not think gentlemen had anything to do with it – she said she wished I could prove that, if so I ought to take out a patent’. His mother and siblings feature regularly on the pages of his diary, as does a destitute uncle for whom a subscription is arranged among relatives to provide for him: ‘altogether we will make up £70 a year but my uncle says it w[oul]d not keep him in potatoes & salt – How many curates live on £75 a year!’ There is a gap in the diary entries between 11 April 1839 and 19 October 1840, which Henry attributes to his lazy habits: ‘I am beginning to know myself pretty well and alas! I must confess the great fault in my character is irresolution of purpose and insuperable indolence.’ He confesses to having entered as a law student two years previously, ‘determined to read diligently… and I did keep my resolution excellently for – a week!! – since then I have done nothing’. An entry dated 23 October 1840 is followed by a blank page and a page torn out.
Henry resumes the diary in January 1841 with a description of preparations for a dinner party he is about to give and an account of the dinner party itself. He mentions his appointment to the Commission of the Peace for County Limerick and provides a lively account of a meeting he attends in Dublin on 21 January 1841 advocating the introduction of railroads in Ireland. He describes in some detail ‘Ireland’s great men’ who spoke at the meeting, including the Archbishop of Dublin, the Duke of Leinster, Earl Mountcashell, John O’Connell MP, Colonel Edward Michael Connolly, Christopher Fitzsimon MP, Henry Grattan and William Torrens McCullagh. He describes his daily activities in Dublin, which in the main consist of reading Sir Archibald Alison’s History of Europe in the Dublin Library, wining and dining at the Queen’s Inn and the Oyster Tavern, writing poetry and visiting his mistress. On one occasion, he spends half an hour walking with a Miss Millet, ‘a very agreeable girl and handsome by Candlelight’. Returning to Limerick in February, he takes great delight at the reception of some comic verse he has published anonymously. He attends the petty sessions in Limerick city as chairman for the first time ‘and went thro’ the business very well’. In March 1841, he contemplates his relationship with his mistress. ‘Poor Maria! I feel that I love her much and I know not how I can ever desert her – I have often been thinking latterly of retiring from the world with her, and taking a cottage in some retired country, of spending the rest of my days in quiet, giving myself up to my little children & my books…’ In the same month he mentions his election as president of the Mechanics’ Institute and discusses his plan to introduce a new system at the court house ‘By occasional levity and by inflicting an equal punishment on rich and poor’. He is suffering from an undisclosed ailment which is slow to heal and which leaves him ‘generally sad and out of temper’. In early April 1841 he travels to London and spends two weeks mostly dining at Lincolns Inn and visiting various theatres. Returning to Dublin, he notes: ‘I think I may in time become a useful magistrate and have a pretty fair knowledge of my duties as such – There are gentlemen on the Tipperary Bench of many years standing and, God knows! They know little enough’.
There is another long gap in entries between 2 May and 1 October 1841, when Henry describes a weekly meeting of Poor Law Guardians. An entry made on 3 October is incomplete as a consequence of a page having been torn out. The next and final entry is dated 1 January 1842, in which Henry reflects on the less flattering aspects of his character and his lack of application to qualify for the bar or to finish a story intended for publication in Blackwood’s Magazine. He also reprimands himself for the sorry state of his finances: ‘Every one, who spends more than his income, is a fool’. The entry ends abruptly with yet another torn-out page. Pagination up to page 55, but with irregularities.
UntitledThe collection consists of manuscript and typescript biographical accounts of Volunteers and civilians who died during the War of Independence and Civil War and who had links with the West Clare Brigade IRA. The accounts provide detailed information concerning the birth, early education and military career of each individual.
The collection illuminates a turbulent period in Irish history stretching from the later decades of the nineteenth century until the end of the Civil War in 1923. The inclusion of biographical details of Volunteers who were killed during the Civil War while fighting on the anti-Treaty side makes it historically significant, as information of this nature was rarely recorded.
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