Special Collections' & Archives' Subject Support: Modern Irish

Special Collections & Archives have a wide range of sources to assist research in Modern 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. 

In addition Special Collections holds the following collections:

• Over 300 Irish language manuscripts from the 17th-19th centuries. A selection of these are digitised on Irish Script on Screen. 
• 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) .
• 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, the Archives Service has a number of other collections of interest:

• The late Professor Riobáird P. Breathnach Collection (1913-1975), his work on place names and an English translation of Seancas Cléire.
• The Papers of Daniel Corkery (1878-1964), politican, writer and academic (former Professor of English, UCC) that include his strong opinions on the Irish language. 
• The Peadar Ó Dubha Collection (1881-1971), co-founder of the Dundalk branch of the Gaelic League and a travelling teacher of Irish.
• The Tomás Ó Muircheartaigh Collection (1907-1967), a leading member of Conradh na Gaeilge.

Ls. 90 is part of the Power manuscript collection and was acquired by UCC Library in November 1941. Ls. 90 has two manuscripts bound together: “Beatha Finnchua” or “The Life of St Finchua of Bri-Golbhuinn” and “The Ancient Topography of The Two Fermoys.” Both manuscripts are dual language texts with Irish on the left-hand side page and the English version on the right-hand side page. Seosamh Ó Longáin transcribed “Beatha Finnchua” in 1856 for Fr. Dómhnall Ó Cathasaigh. Throughout “Beatha Finnchua” are lavishly decorated initial letters and animals in the margin (see examples below) “The Ancient Topography of the Two Fermoys” is copied from The Book of Lismore. Seoasamh Ó Longáin also copied this in 1856 for Revd. Daniel Casey. This is also dual-language in the same manner as the previous text but without any of the decorated initial letters or animals. For more about the Ó Longáin family read this blog post.

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