Dublin City Libraries will be closed from Saturday 4 May to Monday 6 May 2024 (inclusive). Our online services will continue as usual. We will reopen on Tuesday, 7 May.
Dublin Literary Award Winner Akhil Sharma Reading and Q&A
On the evening of Friday, 10 June, literary award winner Akhil Sharma gave a reading, followed by a Q&A session, introduced and moderated by Niall MacMonagle in Dublin City Library and Archive, Pearse Street.
James Thomas Dowling: Dublin’s County Librarian and the Rising
A native of Dublin’s north inner city, ‘Tom’ Dowling was recruited in 1915, aged sixteen, to the Dublin Corporation Libraries as a junior library assistant, having achieved second place in the Libraries examination.
Are you keen to get started on social media? Would you like to learn to tweet, comment on YouTube, share your photos and maintain your privacy on facebook? Are you looking for tips on how to protect your children online? Then this information session with teacher Tony Riley on 'how to use social media in a safe and fun way’ is for you.This session will guide you on use of everyday apps and help you to be in control of what information you decide to share. Listen to Tony share practical tips on safe browsing and communicating with your children about online safety and limiting use of devices.Recorded at Pearse Street Library on Saturday 13 June 2015.Listen to 'How to use social media in a safe and fun way' [play time: 01:28:53 minutes]:The programme was funded by Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources under BENEFIT IV funding.
On Thursday, 9 June 2016, in the Mansion House in Dublin, Family Life by Akhil Sharma was announced as the winner of the 21st International DUBLIN Literary Award. Akhil Sharma was born in Delhi, India, and moved with his family to the United States when he was eight. He is also the author of An Obedient Father, winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. He lives in New York City and is an assistant professor of English at Rutgers University, Newark.Commenting on his win, Akhil Sharma said: “To be acknowledged by people I respect is a strange thing. I can’t say I fooled them. I feel abashed by this honor.” Watch Akhil deliver his acceptance speech:The judges commented: "Suffering and the struggle to ameliorate suffering are not unknown in fiction but Family Life pulls off the extraordinary feat of showing them in their correct alignment. Closing the book, having known this mix of light and dark, you are left with the sense that while reading you were actually at the core of human experience and what it is to be alive. This is the highest form of achievement in literature. Few manage it. This novel does. Triumphantly. Luminously. Movingly. All hail Family Life by Akhil Sharma."Family Life is available to borrow from Dublin City Public Libraries.The International Dublin Literary Award is sponsored by Dublin City Council and managed by Dublin City Public Libraries.
The following is a transcript of "Printing the 1916 Proclamation" a talk by Dr Mary Clark at Dublin City Hall on Monday, 25 April 2016.AudioWelcome to the Dublin City Public Libraries and Archive Podcast. In this episode Dublin City Archivist Mary Clark talks about the 1916 Proclamation so kindly donated to Dublin City Council by the family of Nurse Elizabeth O’Farrell, and tells the story of how the original signatures were chewed to a pulp by Michael Molloy. One of three talks given at a seminar held in Dublin City Hall on 25 April 2016.Good afternoon. I’d like to open this seminar by welcoming the O’Farrell family to City Hall. We are greatly in their debt as they so generously donated Elizabeth’s 1916 Proclamation to Dublin City Council, which we now have on display in the City Hall Exhibition downstairs.Of all copies of the Proclamation which survive this is one of the most historic. It was in the GPO with Elizabeth O’Farrell and she herself is one of the most heroic figures in the story of Easter week, as we will hear later on from her grand-nephew Ian Kelly. This seminar is designed to look at the Proclamation in general and at Elizabeth’s Proclamation in particular, through talks on its printing and conservation. We will also look at Elizabeth’s life and career, including her activities after the Rising and we will close with an original poem inspired by Elizabeth’s life and courage.So I’m up first, my name is Mary Clark and I’m the City Archivist and I am going to talk about printing the 1916 Proclamation. Now there is the 1916 Proclamation and obviously it’s a really historic document, but it’s also a work of art, it’s a simply beautifully object. You can see that it sits comfortably into its frame with even margins all around, and none of the words at the end of any of the lines has been hyphenated, so it’s been extremely well-designed. This is the achievement of three men, Christopher Brady who was the printer and Michael Molloy and Liam O’Brien, who were the two compositors. These three men worked for the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union, printing up trade union cards and programmes for weekly concerts at Liberty Hall, but also getting out the weekly newspaper The Workers’ Republic. They were used to working under pressure and meeting tight deadlines, but even so printing the Proclamation was the most important and critical task ever entrusted to them.Each of these three men gave his witness statement to the Bureau of Military History during the 1950s. Although each man has his unique perspective, the statements dovetail in essentials. At James Connolly’s request, the three men met at Liberty Hall on Easter Sunday. According to Christy Brady, Connolly introduced them to Thomas MacDonagh, who had the manuscript of the Proclamation in his hand, which is an absolutely riveting historical moment, Thomas MacDonagh standing in front of the three men with the manuscript Proclamation in his hand. So MacDonagh said ‘Well men, the time is about opportune to strike a blow for Ireland’. MacDonagh read the Proclamation to the three men, and when he was finished, he gave it to each man to read. So they were each being empowered to make a personal decision about whether they wanted to print the Proclamation or not. So he asked them if they would print the document each man agreed to this, reckoning that it was an honour to be asked. Liam O’Brien noted that the ‘manuscript was entirely legible, the script being upright and almost perfect, without any changes or corrections’. He also formed the opinion that the handwriting was that of Padraig Pearse, which he had seen before.That evening, Easter Sunday evening, work began on typesetting the Proclamation. The type that was used has been obtained on Good Friday by Michael Molloy, who was asked to find more type by James Connolly, without being told exactly what it was going to be used for. So Michael Molloy went to Stafford Street where there was an Englishman by the name of West, who was a printer, and he asked for type and he then said if you don’t give it to me I’m afraid I’ll have to take it. So with that Mr West handed it over, but he said that he wanted it back, so when you’ve used the type please bring it back to me. But of course, as we know, that never happened. The type was in fact smashed up by the British Army when they raided Liberty Hall during Easter Week.However, once typesetting began, on the evening of Easter Sunday, it soon became clear that there was a shortage of type, and to remedy this smaller letters, mainly the letter e were used in between the larger ones. There is a tradition in the family of Councillor Patrick V. Mahon that the smaller letters were obtained from him, as he had a printing works around the corner but I have not found any verification of this – certainly the three men who worked on the document do not mention it. Christy Brady also made a new letter by converting F to E using sealing wax. The document was ready for printing around 8.30pm and between 12 midnight and 1.00am on Easter Monday, the task was finished with a total of 2,500 copies made. Now that number of copies is what is stated by Christy Brady, and as the printer of the Proclamation he should know. On the Internet you are going to find all kinds of different numbers given, but the total of 2,500 is what is believed to be true.Because of the shortage of type, the document was printed in two parts, using a Wharfedale cylinder printing press. James Connolly checked the proofs against the original manuscript Proclamation. So on Easter Monday morning, the Proclamation, the manuscript Proclamation was still in Liberty Hall. And apart from the incorrect spelling of Eamon with one N instead of two, he pronounced himself satisfied. As far as I can make out, this is the last known sighting of the original manuscript Proclamation. Where it is, if it has survived nobody knows. However, the seven signatures were on a separate piece of paper appended to the document and Michael Molloy put them in his pocket for safe keeping. When he was later imprisoned in Richmond Barracks, he remembered that he had the signatures in his pocket and that this would be dangerous if found. He began to tear up the paper but a fellow-prisoner advised him to chew the paper up instead and spit it out on the floor for added safety, so Molloy followed his advice. So that was the end of the seven signatures to the 1916 Proclamation.When the Proclamation was ready, the 2,500 printed copies were brought by Helena Molony to the General Post Office, which was to be the centre of the 1916 Rising. Sean T O Ceallaigh, who was aide-de-camp to Patrick Pearse, was charged with arranging for the Proclamation to be pasted up around the city on walls and boards – wherever possible. There are around thirty extant Proclamations left out of 2,500 and people wonder why so few have survived. The historian Lorcan Collins tells a very good story about the nurses in the GPO making a bed out of comfy Proclamations to prevent their patients from lying on the bare floor. There were just so many Proclamations that it was felt that these few wouldn’t be missed. And certainly the Proclamations pasted up around the city centre would have been torn down by the British Army or else in time worn away by the weather. Even as early as 1917, the first anniversary of the Rising, Helena Molony was concerned that the Proclamation was in danger of being forgotten, because there were so few copies of it. It’s interesting that she decided to have facsimiles made for distribution around Dublin. She just didn’t have any, or very few from 1916 - so she just needed more. She asked Tower Press to prepare these facsimiles and when they reported having a shortage of type, same problem a year on. Helena found some type still intact from the 1916 printing in Liberty Hall and she gave it for inclusion in what is knows as ‘The 1917 Proclamation’.As for the three men involved in printing the 1916 Proclamation. Christy Brady went home but after three sleepless days he headed out to Howth, where he had a tent, the tent seems to have been there in permanence and he tried in vain to relax in his tent. He then walked home to Little Mary Street as no trains or trams were running. There he noticed some ‘shawlies’ pointing out his house to the British military and he decided to go on the run and he was on the run for six months. He escaped capture, but his father, who was also a printer, was arrested on suspicion of having been involved in printing the Proclamation. So he was mistaken for his son and arrested. After working for various printers, Christy Brady got a job with the Bank of Ireland in 1922. He lived firstly in Cabra and later in Dundrum, dying in December 1974 at the home run by the Little Sisters of the Poor. Michael Molloy served during the 1916 Rising with the Irish Volunteers under Thomas MacDonagh in Jacob’s Factory. So once they had finished printing the Proclamation they started to get involved in the 1916 Rising. Liam O’Brien served in St Stephen’s Green. Both men were interned at Knutsford and afterwards at Frongoch, and were released some months later.So that’s the amazing story of how this beautiful object was created. So I’m just going to show you one or two things that I think are interesting about it. This is the first line of the Proclamation Poblacht na hÉireann. This word Poblacht is very important. It means of course Republic. But it was the name chosen by the signatories for the 1916 Rising to express what they meant by Republic. Poblacht is a portmanteau word and it is pobal acht, so it’s the 'actions of the people'. And it is much more meaningful than the word Republic, which is from res publica, in latin 'public things'. So there is a great deal more impact in the Irish, it means 'people acting together' and that’s what a republic really is all about. So I just think their choice of word is very important there.Now you will see a couple of capital letters there. If you look at ‘Irish Republic’ you will see that the ‘r’ is slightly banjaxed, if you can see that there. That is a proof that this is an original Proclamation, because the type was indeed banjaxed and this flaw runs right through all of them. And if you look at the other end of it, the ‘c’, that is an ‘o’ which has been cut, not particularly well I must admit, to create a ‘c’ out of it, so you can work that one out. This is the first incidence of the small letter e that I was able to find in the Proclamation and it’s in the third paragraph. You can see quite a difference between the e and the rest of it and it’s quite likely that this was a letter e that was actually fashioned by the type setters in order to continue on the story.‘Extinguished’ has a small letter ‘t’ - there you see that, and also at the very end of the word [extinguish]‘hed’ it’s actually a letter ‘a’ with the tick deleted. You will see a number of ‘e’s together there. A correct ‘e’ in ‘the’ but then ‘three’ has two small ‘e’s and ‘hundred’ and ‘years’ have small ‘e’s as well. And you can also see in the ‘r’ of ‘years’ that it was originally a ‘p’ and a little bit has been cut off to try and make it look like a ‘r’, the same with ‘three’ there.I just thought this was too good to miss for my final comment, ‘sovereign independence date’ and this, of course, is what the men and women of 1916 fought and died for, and it something that we need to maintain for present and future generations. Thank-you very much. Thank-you for listening to the Dublin City Public Libraries and Archive Podcast. To hear more, please subscribe on iTunes or SoundCloud. You can also visit our website - dublincitypubliclibraries.ie and follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
Dublin City’s Second Chief Librarian and the Rising
A native of Dublin’s north inner city, ‘Paddy’ Stephenson (known to his family as ‘Paddy Joe’) was educated by the Christian Brothers at the O'Connell School, North Richmond Street.
Dublin City’s first Chief Librarian and the Rising
A native of the Clogher Valley in Co. Tyrone, Róisín Walsh was born into a staunchly nationalist, Catholic family on 24th March 1889. Walsh was a brilliant linguist and gifted scholar and received the best education then available to females.
Congrats to Lisa McInerney on Baileys Women's Prize Win
Many congratulations to Galway author Lisa McInerney on winning the 2016 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction with 'The Glorious Heresies'. With it she collects a cheque for £30,000.The Glorious Heresies is Lisa McInerney's first novel, though you may have come across her writing as Sweary Lady in her witty blog The Arse End of Ireland which she wrote from 2006. McInerney's debut is set in post-boom Cork and her protagonists inhabit the darker edge of society; Ryan, a 15 year old drug dealer and his alcoholic father, Georgie, a prostitute; and Maureen, whose son is a gangster, has just accidentally murdered someone. McInerney's energetic comic style and her interesting characters lift the book from its setting and make for a colourful, fresh read.The Glorious Heresies was shortlisted for the 2015 Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards in the Newcomer of the Year category. More recently, it has been shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize (for a first novel written in English and published in the UK, winner announcement 22 June 2016). It was also longlisted for the 2016 Dylan Thomas Prize for young writers.Launched in 1996, The Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction is awarded to a female author who, in the opinion of the judges, has written the best, eligible full-length novel in English.The 2015 winner was 'How to be Both' by Ali Smith.Read about the 2016 Award shortlist | longlist.
Kevin Street Library Refurbishment - Upgrade Notice
Pursuant to the requirements of the Planning and Development Act 2000 (as amended), and the Planning and Development Regulations 2001 (as amended) - Part 8, notice is hereby given of an upgrade to the building in compliance with current building regulations in terms of universal access, fire escape and accessible WC provision. The work will include the provision of a new extension on the west side of the existing building to contain a lift, and an external ramp from Kevin Street to the existing entrance door. New external fixed glazed apertures will be created on the western rendered elevation. It is proposed to internally refurbish and increase the internal floor level by 128 sqm to provide extra reading, exhibition and sanitary accommodation in accordance with 21st Century Library service provision. The building is not a protected structure but is been overseen by a conservation led Design Team.Plans and Particulars of the proposed development may be inspected or purchased at a fee not exceeding the reasonable cost of making a copy for a period of 6 weeks from Tuesday 07/06/ 2016 during public opening hours at the offices of Dublin City Council, Public Counter, Planning Department, Block 4, Ground Floor, Civic Offices, Wood Quay, Dublin 8, Monday - Friday 9.00am to 4.30pmPlans and Particulars of the proposed development may also be inspected at Rathmines Library, 157 Lower Rathmines Road, Dublin 6 for a period of 6 weeks from Tuesday 07/06/ 2016 during public opening hours.A submission or observation in relation to the proposed development, dealing with the proper planning and sustainable development of the area in which the development would be situated, may be made, in writing, to the Executive Manager, Planning Department, Dublin City Council, Civic Offices, Wood Quay, Dublin 8, before 4.30pm on Wednesday 03/08/2016.A submission or observation in relation to library services; the fit-out of the building or queries related to the project can be emailed to [email protected] all related documents at consultation.dublincity.ie #citizenspaceSee also previous notice.
A native of Dublin’s inner city, 'Tommy' Gay was educated at Synge Street CBS. His early life coincided with the political and cultural revival of the late nineteenth century and he became very active in a range of sporting and cultural organisations, including the GAA and the Gaelic League. A keen sportsman, he was a member of the Croke Gaelic Club where he became an accomplished hurler and was also a founder member of the Dublin Camogie Club.Right: Thomas E. Gay (1884-1953)As Gay himself later explained it, these organisations ‘gave impetus and new life to the revolutionary movement’. He started in the Corporation libraries as a library assistant at the then newly-opened Charleville Mall Library in line with the practice of recruiting 16 year old boys. By April 1916 he was already a mature 32-year-old man, established in his career as Capel Street Head Librarian and engaged to be married.In September 1914, he enlisted at ‘A’ Company of the 1st Battalion of the Dublin Brigade at the Columcille Hall in Blackhall Street, Stoneybatter. From that time he drilled regularly with his company and attended field manoeuvres near Swords under commanders such as Thomas MacDonagh and Piaras Béaslaí. By early 1916 Gay had learned from his company First Lieutenant, Denis O’Callaghan that ‘a Rising was to take place early in the year.’ Under orders to parade in full kit on Easter Sunday, Gay, by his own account, turned out as instructed, but on learning of MacNeill’s countermanding order he then returned home. Gay spent Easter bank holiday Monday 24 April at the Fairyhouse races (where rumours of the fighting in Dublin reached him). Returning late on Monday night he had no way of knowing where his company was garrisoned.A pragmatic man, by Tuesday morning he decided to report to the post nearest to his home. This was at Jameson's Distillery in Marrowbone Lane under Captain Con Colbert, who, because he had enough men inside the Garrison, decided that Gay, because of his keen knowledge of the area, should be deployed instead in an intelligence and communications role between the Jameson's Distillery Garrison and Jacob’s Biscuit Factory.To all appearances Gay was ‘a mild mannered and innocuous bookworm’, and had a particular ability to make himself unobtrusive and so avoid suspicion. This was therefore a role to which he was well suited and, as he later recalled, ‘to which he was to become more and more attached’ (his subsequent service up to 1924 was almost exclusively in an intelligence capacity).He went on to provide vital assistance from the Tuesday right up until the surrender on the following Sunday. Reporting in daily, he brought in crucial supplies of arms, ammunition, medical and other supplies, updating Colbert regularly on enemy movements. By the Thursday he observed the advance of a troop of the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire regiment (the Sherwood Foresters) coming along the South Circular Road from the Harcourt Street direction, heading towards Rialto. This was most likely the advance of the 2nd Battalion, 18th Regiment of the 2/8th Sherwood Foresters who were ‘detailed to escort a consignment of ammunition to the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham’. Gay immediately forewarned Colbert who was able to alert neighbouring garrisons and frustrate the British offensive.Colbert had instructed him to organise the urgent movement of food supplies from Jacob's factory; Gay went there on the morning of Sunday 30 April, when Thomas MacDonagh was already discussing terms of surrender. Major John MacBride, who was second in command to MacDonagh, instructed him to communicate the verbal surrender back to the Distillery where Captain Séamus Murphy was standing in for Colbert. Murphy ordered Gay back to Jacob’s to request the order in writing. MacBride refused vehemently, stating that he had never and would never put in writing an order for an Irishman to surrender and that they would know when they saw the flag coming down from their building that the surrender had taken place.Gay avoided capture in the aftermath of the surrender. He subsequently became an Intelligence Officer on the General Headquarters staff of the Irish Volunteers, reporting directly to Michael Collins. Interrupting his library career for a time, in 1922 Gay joined the National Army, rising by 1923 to the rank of Colonel, again in an intelligence role. His place of work, Capel Street library became a centre for IRA intelligence, and his home at Haddon Road, Clontarf was frequently used by Collins for meetings.About our Guest BloggerEvelyn Conway is Librarian at Dublin City Public Libraries and Archive.The above is based on an essay in the book 'Dublin City Council and the 1916 Rising', published by Dublin City Council, March 2016. Evelyn is one of a number of contributors of essays exploring events of the Rising and biographies of persons involved and either employed by the Council at the time, or subsequently. Read this recent blog post for more.Part of a series looking at Dublin City Public Libraries staff and the 1916 Rising. See also:Róisin Walsh: Dublin City’s first Chief Librarian and the RisingPaddy Stephenson: Dublin City Council's second Chief Librarian and the RisingJames Thomas Dowling – Dublin’s County Librarian and the RisingMichael McGinn: The Clontarf Town Hall Caretaker and the RisingJames O'Byrne: The Kevin Street Librarian and the Rising