Tomás Ó Muircheartaigh Collection: Home

IE BL/BG/TOM are the papers of Tomás Ó Muircheartaigh (1907-1967) generated by him and preserved by his family after his death. These were acquired by UCC Library in 2005.

Biographical History: Tomás Ó Muircheartaigh was born in Dublin on 27th March 1907 of a Kerry father and a Cork mother. Ó Muircheartaigh entered the Civil Service after leaving school to help his mother support the family after his father’s death and worked in the civil service for the rest of his life. He spent most of that time in the Department of Education but also had positions in The Commission on Place Names and the Irish Land Commission. He was president of Conradh na Gaeilge from 1955-1959.  He died on St Patrick’s Day 1967 after a long illness. 

Tomas Ó Muircheartaigh was a seminal figure in Irish cultural life in the period following the establishment of the Irish republic up until the 1960’s. As a leading member of Conradh na Gaeilge he sought to promote and preserve that vision of ‘Irishness’ which he and his contemporaries held dear. A close friend and confidant of Daniel Corkery, they both shared a similar vision of a resurgence of a native cultural tradition based on the Irish language and he worked tirelessly to this end. He was on familiar terms with many of the great Irish artists of his day, both literary and visual including Sean Ó Suileabháin, Sean Keating and Seamus Murphy. A long time editor of such publications as Feasta Ó Muircheartaigh was also a gifted photographer and his photographs often accompanied the articles in Conradh publications.

The collection is small and a structure has been imposed by the archivist. It begins with administration files belonging to Ó Muircheartaigh relating to his time in the Civil Service and as President of Conradh na Gaeilge. These files contain letters and copies of speeches or addresses he made, as well as his contributions to the magazine Feasta. Also in the collection are scrapbooks of newspaper cuttings of general cultural and literary interest.