The 20th John T. Gilbert Commemorative Lecture
Published on 16th February 2017
(Podcast) 'Gentlemen’s Daughters in Dublin Cloisters: The social world of nuns in early 18th century Dublin', the 20th Annual Sir John T. Gilbert Lecture, was given by Dr Bernadette Cunningham, Royal Irish Academy at the Dublin City Library and Archive on Wednesday, 25 January 2017.
The lecture looks at the social world of the communities of Poor Clare and Dominican nuns who established themselves in the Oxmantown/Grangegorman area of Dublin in the early eighteenth century.
Dr Bernadette Cunningham is Deputy Librarian at the Royal Irish Academy and she is an expert on the history of 17th and 18th century Ireland. She is a graduate of University College Galway and University College Dublin, with degrees in History and Political Science and a PhD in Irish. She holds a post graduate qualification in librarianship from Aberystwyth.
Bernadette has published widely on early modern Irish culture and intellectual history. Books include The world of Geoffrey Keating (Dublin, 2000); The Annals of the Four Masters: Irish history, kingship and society in the early seventeenth century (Dublin, 2010); Clanricard and Thomond: 1540–1640: provincial politics and society transformed (Dublin, 2012), and (with Raymond Gillespie), Stories from Gaelic Ireland: microhistories from the sixteenth-century Irish annals (2003).
The lecture was published in 2018 and is available to purchase and borrow. How to purchase / check availability in the library catalogue.
Listen to the lecture
About John T. Gilbert and the Gilbert Library
John T. Gilbert's valuable library of mainly 17th and 18th century books and manuscripts relating to Dublin and Ireland was purchased by Dublin Corporation after his death in 1898. It forms the nucleus of the special collections of Dublin City Public Libraries.
Born in 1829, Gilbert was author of the influential three volume 'History of the city of Dublin', published from 1857-59. He was a firm advocate of documenting the history of his native city using primary sources. His work on manuscripts relating to the city alerted him to the need for the preservation of Irish public records, many of which were in a neglected and vulnerable condition. He commenced a campaign, which eventually led to the setting up of the Public Records Office in the Four Courts. He calendared the records of Dublin Corporation, which date from the twelfth century, and began the series of printed volumes The calendar of ancient records of the city of Dublin.
The printed catalogue of the books and manuscripts of the Gilbert collection compiled by Douglas Hyde, LL.D & D.J. O'Donoghue is available for consultation in the Reading Room, Dublin City Library & Archive. View John T. Gilbert in the library online catalogue.
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