Special Collections' & Archives' Subject Support: Early & Medieval Irish

Special Collections & Archives have a wide range of sources to assist research in Early & Medieval Irish. Such sources may be reference works including manuscript catalogues, manuscript bibliographies or edited texts of Irish manuscripts e.g. Irish Texts Society and Scriptores Latini Hiberniae.

There is a range of journals available: Analecta Bollandiana, Analecta Hibernica, Celtica, Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Journal of Celtic Studies and Revue Celtique. 

The collection of the late Professor Tadhg Ó Donnchadha (Torna), Professor of Irish at University College Cork (1916-1944) forms the nucleus of a research collection for Celtic Studies. Torna's collection has been augmented by purchases of material of related interest published since the death of Torna. His original collection is organised by author surname with the subsequent material organised by Dewey. There is also a very small Tadhg Ó Donnchadha (Tórna) Collection (archival) that may be of interest. 

In addition Special Collections holds the following collections:

• Arbois de Jubainville, a leading authority on the subject of Celtic matters.
• Irish Literary Society and the Irish Texts Society. For more relating to these collections see here. 
• Seán Ó Riordáin (1916-1977), poet and essayist, lecturer in the Department of Modern Irish at UCC (1969-1976). His annotated collection reflects the poet's interests in worldwide literature. There is also a small amount of ephemera, material removed during the cataloguing of his library, that now forms a Seán Ó Riordáin Collection (archival) .

Of interest to students may be the archival collection containing Professor Riobáird Breathnach’s (1913-1975) working academic papers, chiefly compiled during his tenure as Professor of Old and Middle English at UCC from 1967 until his retirement in 1972. Material is primarily concerned with Anglo-Saxon, Medieval, and Modern English, as well as Medieval and Modern Irish. 

This frontispiece depicts Brian Boru and is opposite the title page of Keating's A General History of Ireland (1723). This copy was printed in Dublin and was owned by John Windele, a noted Cork antiquarian in the 19th century. 

All PDF documents are available as Word documents. Please contact specialcollectionsarchives@ucc.ie should this be required.