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The collection comprises papers relating to C Company 2nd Limerick City Battalion Mid Limerick Brigade 1917-1924 and includes narrative accounts of the Brigade activities during the War of Independence and information on the reorganisation of the Limerick Brigades during and following the Civil War. The collection is unusual as the anti-Treaty IRA was considered to be an illegal organisation and their records as a consequence were usually kept secret.

This collection contains records of the organisation, management and finances of the Limerick Protestant Young Men's Association, its members, staff, premises and club activities, particularly during the height of the Association's between the 1920s and 1950s. There are no records relating to the Association’s foundation or early years (1853-1869), and few relating to its activities after 1959, when its popularity began to vane. The records are purely of administrative nature and reveal little of the Association’s temporal and spiritual aspirations. Arising from the fact that the Association’s secretaries were not obliged to hand over records in their possession upon resignation, some years and some aspects of the Association’s activities remain poorly recorded.

This collection contains material created and generated by the Armstrong and Kemmis families during their ownership of Moyaliffe House, county Tipperary, and includes both administrative records and personal documents. Seventeenth-century material is scarce and limited in the main to leases of small pockets of land in counties Tipperary and Limerick. A more unusual item from this period is the satirical manuscript poem On the Bill of Conformity (P6/2137), attributed to Henry Hall, one of only sixteen known copies in the world. Eighteenth-century administrative records are mainly of financial and legal nature and arise from the badly managed affairs of William Armstrong (1704-1768), which affected his brother, the Reverend John Armstrong, who succeeded to the estate. Of personal items, the collection of early eighteenth-century sermons (P6/375-P6/427) attributed to the Reverend Edward Armstrong, the Reverend John Armstrong and others is of particular interest.

The nineteenth-century administrative material relates predominantly to the management of the Moyaliffe estate, and the succession to and management and eventual disposal of the family’s estates in Mayo and Sligo. There are also some clerical records of interest, most notably material relating to tithe wars of the 1830s (P6/758-P6/766 and P6/789-P6/813), and the state of dilapidation of the Mansion House of the See of Tuam discovered after the death, in 1819, of the Most Reverend Honourable William Beresford, first Baron Decies, Archbishop of Tuam, whose daughter Catherine was married to the Reverend Willam Carew Armstrong (1791-1847) (P6/850-P6/860).

By far the most voluminous, and perhaps the most interesting, part of the collection is that relating to the twentieth century. The administrative records in this section are in the main concerned with the management not only of Moyaliffe House but also of Ballinacor, county Wicklow, home of Captain William Daryl Olphert Kemmis. There is also a large quantity of material relating to Moyaliffe Stud (P6/1547-P6/1595), and to the problem of succession to the Moyaliffe and Ballinacor estates following Captain Kemmis’s death without issue in 1965 (P6/1812-P6/1834). On the personal side, the extensive correspondence of Rosalie Armstrong and her daughter Jess provide a unique insight into the genteel Anglo-Irish lifestyle and the irrevocable changes wrought upon it by the onset of the First World War. Of unique significance are the letters of Captain Kemmis to his father (P6/1475-P6/1479), and the letters and diaries of Captain William Maurice (‘Pat’) Armstrong written during the First World War (P6/1209-P6/1212 and P6/1414-P6/1418), providing first-hand accounts of events as they unfolded in the various theatres of war.

The twentieth-century material was roughly arranged by Jess Kemmis, who also appears to have destroyed some of it for personal reasons. Items thus lost included letters written by her niece, Bettyne Spencer (née Everard), to justify her actions during the Moyaliffe House dispute (for which see P6/1821-P6/1831). The letters were destroyed by Mrs Kemmis because she felt her niece’s views to be wrong. Also missing are Jess Kemmis’s diaries for the years 1955-1982 which she is known to have kept assiduously with the view to their permanent preservation within the family papers.

Jess Kemmis provided many explanatory notes and dates relating to the Armstrong Papers and the people and events to which they relate. These notes, which can be found scattered throughout the collection, should be treated with due caution as most, while well-intentioned and often helpful, can be misleading or inaccurate, written as they were in advanced old age.

Posters, flyers, programmes, press cuttings, photographs and ephemera collected by Frances Buchanan née O’Hara mainly reflecting her times in Patricia Mulholland’s Irish Ballet.

The material consists of leases, mortgages, conveyances, marriage settlements and wills relating to the families of Odell (1782-1891), Morony (1831-1937), Lloyd (1829-1965) and Allott (1947-1999). Of particular interest is the copy will relating to Helen Sophia Chenevix (1890-1963), General Secretary of the Irish Women Workers’ Union (1955-1957), member of the Irish Trade Union Congress executive committee (1946-1956), and one of the first female graduates of Trinity College, Dublin (see P27/1/4/1/3/1). There are also extensive records relating to the dairy farm managed at Odellville from 1945 to 1994, including stock breeding and sales records, milk records and farm accounts (P27/2/1/2-6). There is some architectural material relating to improvements carried out at Odellville between 1880 and 1900 (P27/1/2/7/1-3). There are also 19th-century scrapbooks and other items of Quaker interest relating to the Watson and Webb families (P27/3/1/1-4).

This collection contains some of Seán Lysaght's published works (including essays, poetry and book reviews) and correspondence with publishing companies, journals and newspapers illustrating his early development and maturing as a poet.

This collection contains material created and received by the Carrol, Angus and Scott families, particularly during their ownership and residence of Tulla and Lissenhall but also beyond. It includes legal, administrative and personal documents. There is a small amount of late eighteenth century material, the more interesting of which is a map from 1798 of the Kingdoms of Spain and Portugal, though the bulk of the documents are from the nineteenth century. Legal documents include wills and issues of probate and executorship, affidavits, judgments, opinions and correspondence covering financial and trustee arrangements. They also include a large quantity of correspondence related to land sales and transfers, such as agreements, ejectment decrees and indentures, much of which arise from William Hutchison’s efforts to bring estate matters into order. Of particular interest is a return of debts due by the late Lieutenant General Sir William Parker Carrol and paid by his executors which lists many Limerick and Tipperary businesses from the period. Later documents, particularly relating to a legal struggle between the Carrol’s and Lloyds Insurance regarding claims for losses due to the theft of livestock and equipment during the 1920s, are also illuminating.
The Carrol family’s direct involvement with the Tulla and Lissenhall Estates has resulted in the collection containing some rental accounts which provide the names of tenants, acreage and their rentals and also estate accounts which includes the names of local individuals and businesses having commercial interaction with the Carrol estate. Other estate material involves correspondence regarding day to day estate management and operations but worthy of note is a print of the Encumbered Estates auction schedule which includes a description of Lot 1, Lissenhall, its tenants and rents at the time of William Hutchison Carrol’s purchase, and also Alice Carrol’s interactions with the Land Commission leading up to her vacating Lissenhall.
Personal material includes a great deal of personal correspondence and letters from family members much of which is concerned with family genealogy and includes printed and transcribed material from third party sources. Correspondence from institutions with regard to personal finances, stocks and taxation issues is also present. There is a significant quantity of photographs, both in albums and loose covering most of the principal individuals dating from the 1860s to the 1990s. Also present is a large scrapbook. The result of a familial connection to the Scott’s and compiled over nearly fifty years from 1895 to 1944, it contains copious material on Clement Scott and also the Du Maurier family, including photographs of Gerald Du Maurier and the young Daphne with her siblings.

The collection comprises approximately 250,000 photographic items, including press cuttings, reports, brochures spanning over five decades. Of particular significance are the photographs taken between 1959–1998, which visually capture the Shannon Development story, and provide unique insights into the life in Ireland in the latter half of the twentieth century. It chronicles the evolution of Shannon town, as well as the broader Shannon region from a large agricultural base to a leading industrial and tourism centre. There is also material relating to the wider Clare Region, Limerick, Tipperary, Offaly, and Kerry.
The photographs include images of the many people of renown that passed through Shannon Airport, coverage of the world’s first duty free zone and images of newly acquired aircraft. The early construction days of Shannon Town and people at work in associated industrial settings are also captured. There are many photos of events at Bunratty Castle, Knappogue Castle, Dromoland Castle, Cragaunowen and the Cliffs of Moher, which provide a valuable insight into the development of new tourist attractions in the region during the 1960s.
Besides offering a visual account of the development of the airport and its environs, the collection offers unique opportunities to consider a range of topics including life, culture, dress, and some of the social norms of Ireland in the latter half of the twentieth century.

This collection contains manuscripts of five of Michael Curtin’s six novels and correspondence relating to his career as a writer.

This 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.