A (Staycation) Travel Miscellany - Sources for History of Travel in Ireland

As we are allowed to expand our horizons to travel anywhere in Ireland from 29 June, it is worth looking back at some of the tourist accounts and travel guides relating to Ireland published during the twentieth century. The first half of the century witnessed the zenith of the Irish railway network when the whole island was connected by rail. In 1906 a map was published to accompany the report of the Vice-regal Commission on Railways in Ireland. It is contained in the Commission’s full report which is available through the House of Commons Parliamentary papers database on the library website or the Enhanced Parliamentary Papers Ireland website at http://www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi. You can also access the map on Wikimedia Commons at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_Rail_Ireland_Viceregal_Commission_1906.jpg.

The Midland and Great Western Railway Company’s branch line to Clifden ran through our university campus. When you walk from the library towards Distillery road, you are walking on the railway! If you would like to read some of the guides to excursions on this and other West of Ireland lines you can do so at http://mgwr.weebly.com/downloads.html. We have the original edition of the Midland & Great Western’s detailed handbook from 1900, Ireland from Sea to Sea but sadly that’s not yet available digitally.

While lots of travel guides for 19^th century Ireland have been digitised and made available online, fewer volumes from the 20^th century are on offer yet, mostly because quite a lot of the material is still subject to copyright. You will have to wait for the reopening of the Archives and Special Collections Room, hopefully in the next few months, in order to read these volumes for yourself but here are a few illustrations from them to whet your appetite!

O’Neill Lane, T. Round Erin or Highways and byways in Ireland (Abbeyfeale, County Limerick: [the author], c.1900).

Irish Tourist Authority. Ireland: Official Guide (Dublin, c.1946),

Bord Fáilte. Illustrated Ireland guide. (Dublin, 1968),

Newby, Eric & Petry, Diana. Wonders of Ireland: a personal choice of 484 (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1969)

In the meantime, though, you might like to try Thomas O’Neill Russell. The beauties and antiquities of Ireland (1897), and Dorling Kindersley’s Eyewitness Guide to Ireland (2012), the full text of which is available through the library catalogue. If you would like to read more about Irish travel writing the journal Studies in Travel Writing devoted a special issue to the subject in 2016 (Volume 20, Issue 2) which can also be accessed via the library catalogue. Enjoy your trips and stay safe!

Swords Round Tower

Rugby on Campus - Success in Past and Present

You might be forgiven for being slightly hoarse today after cheering on Ireland in their 6 Nations victory over the weekend. Here on campus we have an extra reason to be proud as NUI Galway's Robbie Henshaw delivered not only a Man of the Match performance but also his first international try. To do so against a formidable England team in such a bruising encounter in the Aviva Stadium is an incredible achievement. Well done Robbie.

A look back in the archives of NUI Galway we can see a long rugby tradition. As far back as 1904, the then Queen's College Galway were active on the rugby field. In the Rugby notes of the student magazine of 1904, the anonymous author describes some of the Galway players. "Dee at full back is as cool and resourceful as ever . . ."; "The wings are all fairly good: Waller and Rentoul are both all-round players . . ."

The poem below, also published in the 1904 student magazine is an 'ode to rugby':

The image below is of Cork student Harry Jack attempting a penalty kick facing a rather large crowd at a Dudley Cup game held in Galway. The Dudley Cup in rugby was a big event for the author as he writes of his own memories as a player: "Rugby! Even as I write and gaze upon the word, a thousand regretful thoughts flash through my mind . . .I might dream of the deafening cheers with which an admiring and ecstatic crowd were wont to greet the entry into a football arena of the rugby team of the past."

The notes detail the Dudley Cup game between Galway and Belfast colleges in 1913 and in particular the performance of Cork player Harry Jack:

" . . .We were all agog with excitement to witness a trial of science between Wallace and Harry Jack, the famous Cork stand-off half. Jack plays, as was only to be expected, a neat and sound game, his handling of the ball striking us as being very pretty, while the wisdom and length of his kicking were a revelation to those who had an opportunity of feasting their eyes upon the execution of his powers.

The final game of the competition came down to Galway and Belfast and is pictured below:

While UCG were not successful in that particular Dudley Cup, further success would come to campus in Galway, not just in the Dudley Cup but in the Connacht Senior Cup, as in the images below. If anyone can identify any members do leave a comment.

Back in 2015, lets hope Robbie Henshaw and the rest of the Irish team can continue this great run of success and have more silverware back on campus in Galway!

To see any of these historic student magazines of NUI Galway or other related material please consult the Archives and Special Collections service at the James Hardiman Library:
http://www.library.nuigalway.ie/collections/archives/

The Emergency: Ireland in Wartime, 27-28 June 2014 - Conference at NUI Galway

The Emergency: Ireland in wartime, 27-28 June 2014

A great conference upcoming here on campus at NUI Galway, coming at the 75th anniversary of World War II, will focus on it's place in an Irish context, known as 'the Emergency'. With renowned international and Irish keynote speakers including Robert Fisk, Brian Girvin, T. Ryle Dwyer, Mervyn O'Driscoll and Michael Kennedy, as well as a wide range of academics and scholars, it promises to be a really interesting two days. For full conference details click here. 

Schedule

Friday 27 June Coffee and Welcome 09.30 Panel 1:   “High Diplomacy” 10.00 – 11.30 ·         Dr Paul McNamara (NUI, Galway) ·         Mr Steven Murphy (University College Cork) ·         Dr Barry Whelan (NUI, Maynooth) Coffee 11.30 – 12.00 Keynote 12.00 – 13.00 ·         Dr Mervyn O’Driscoll (University College Cork) Lunch 13.00 – 14.00 Panel 2: “Wartime shortages in an international context” 14.00 – 15.15 (Room G010) ·         Dr Bryce Evans (Liverpool Hope University) ·         Dr Peter Rigney (Trinity College Dublin) Panel 3: “Exiles in Ireland” 14.00 – 15.15 (Room G011) ·         Dr Gisela Holfter (University of Limerick) ·         Ms Neasa McGarrigle (Trinity College Dublin) Coffee 15.15 – 15.30 Keynote 15.30 - 16.30   ·         Prof. Brian Girvin (Glasgow University)    Film screening 17.00 – 19.00 ·         The Enigma of Frank Ryan ·         Q & A: Prof. Des Bell with Dr Fearghal McGarry Conference Keynote 20.00 – 21.30 ·         Dr Robert Fisk (venue: Radisson Hotel) Saturday 28 June Panel 4: “A land of opportunity”? 09.45– 10.45 ·         Dr Jackie Uí Chionna (NUI, Galway) ·         Dr Bozena Cierlick (University College Cork) Coffee 10.45 – 11.00 Panel 5: “Britain’s war in an Irish context” 11.00 – 12.30 (Room G010) ·         Dr Pat McCarthy (Military History Society of Ireland) ·         Dr Steven O'Connor (Trinity College Dublin) ·         Mr Joseph Quinn (Trinity College Dublin) Panel 6:  “Employment options – Ireland and the United Kingdom” 11.00 – 12.30 (Room G011) ·         Dr Mary Muldowney (Trinity College Dublin) ·         Dr Jennifer Redmond (NUI, Maynooth) ·         Ms Mary Hawkins (NUI, Galway) Lunch 12.30 – 13.30 Keynote 13.30 – 14.30 ·         Dr T. Ryle Dwyer Coffee 14.30 – 14.45 Panel 7: “Neutrality Discourses” 14.45 – 16.15 (Room G010) ·         Dr Bernard Kelly (Edinburgh University) ·         Dr Karen Devine (Dublin City University) ·         Ms Lili Zach (NUI, Galway) Panel 8: “Activists and the news agenda” 14.45 – 16.15 (Room G011) ·         Dr Leo Keohane (NUI, Galway) ·         Dr Kevin McCarthy (University College Cork) ·         Mr James O’Donnell (NUI, Galway) Coffee 16.15 – 16.30 Keynote (followed by concluding remarks) 16.30 – 17.30 ·         Dr Michael Kennedy (Royal Irish Academy)

Vote for the Hardiman Building in Engineers Ireland Excellence Awards 2013

Here at the Hardiman Library we are delighted to learn that our new extension comprising the home for Archives and Special Collections at NUI Galway, has been nominated in the Engineers Ireland Excellence Awards for 2013, in the category "Engineering Project of the Year."

Having opened this past August, the new extension to the Hardiman Building includes facilities that meet international best-practice in the storage, access and exhibition of archives, including climate-controlled strongrooms, a 36-seat reading-room, digital archives access area, dedicated archives and special collections training and teaching rooms as well as the allowing for the fit-out of a major new exhibition space. The upper levels of the building will accommodate dedicated study areas for researchers and graduates within the Humanities, providing a connectivity for research and creating a hub for scholarship at the Hardiman Building.

The Hardiman building is also the only Archives building project to have been nominated. All votes and support are greatly appreciated in ensuring the presence and profile of Archives is kept high on a national level as well as focusing continued investment in Archives as being essential.

To vote for the Hardiman Building (formally known as the Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences Research Building), please click the following link:

http://www.engineersireland.ie/Awards/Excellence-Awards/Engineering-Project-of-the-Year/NUIG-building.aspx#.Untd61OHh4M

A Little Tour Around Ireland . . . in 1859

A Little Tour in Ireland

 A wonderful volume from our Special Collections here at the Hardiman Library, is A Little tour in Ireland by 'An Oxonian'. The author in question was an Oxford student but was later identified as being Samuel Reynolds Hole, Dean Of Rochester. This edition goes some way to removing the mystery of the author as at some point in history, someone added the manuscript name of the author, 'S.R. Hole', as you can see in the title page image. The illustrations which add a hugely visual element to the scenes depicted and the people encountered on the journey are by John Leech, a renowned artist and caricaturist, well known in London society of the early to mid 1800s.

'The Letters of Samuel Reynolds Hole, Dean of Rochester, edited with a memoir' by George A.B. Dewar, published in 1907 in London is a great source for biographical information on Hole and also Leech and provides additional context for the journey in Ireland and the book that was to follow. In a chronology of the life of Samuel Hole, printed in these collected letters, (1907, London) it is noted that his first book was A Little tour in Ireland, published in 1858. This is at odds slightly with this edition at the Hardiman Library (and most other editions) which is dated as being a 1959 first edition. 

The book points out how "Leech and Hole were great friends. At Leech's suggestion they travelled together in Ireland, and the result was "A Little Tour of Ireland", which Hole wrote and which was illustrated by what Ruskin called "the kind and vivid genius of John Leech.".

The travel route was mapped out by John Deane, one of the members of the Royal Commission at the time of the famine and this would include Dublin, Galway, Connemara, the scenary of the Shannon from from Athlone to Limerick, Kilarney, Glengarriff and Cork. Individual legs of the journey which feature the West of Ireland include, 'From Dublin to Galway', 'From Galway to Oughterarde', 'Connemara', Clifden', Leenane', Kylemore' and then further throughout Ireland.

Dean Samuel Hole

The level of detail in description in each stop along the journey is fascinating to read. Describing the Claddagh, Hole writes; "The Englishman who desires a new sensation should pay a visit to the Claddagh. When we arrived, the men were out to sea; but the women, in their bright red petticoats, descending half-way down the uncovered leg, their cloaks worn like the Spanish Mantilla, and of divers colours, their headkerchiefs and hoods, were grouped among the old grey ruins where the fish market is held, and formed a tableau not to be forgotten. though their garments are torn, and patched, and discoloured, there is a graceful dignity about them which might teach a lesson to Parisian milliners; and to my fancy the most becoming dress in all the world is that of a peasant girl of Connamara." (p38-39)

Hole commented on wanting to travel at his leisure on this jaunt around Ireland: "We had ample time thoroughly to enjoy that which we saw, not acting on the principle of that Cockney tourist . . . who boasted that he had 'knocked off thirteen churches that morning', but going leisurely like large butterflies from flower to flower. . . You cannot hurry in Ireland, there is something in the humid atmosphere and in the habits and demeanour of the people which ignores haste." (p11)

Commentary on the Great Famine in the Galway region makes for grim reading. Upon finishing a "Mighty dinner at Galway", accompanied with Drogheda ale, Hole and Leech are Hole are reminded by their witer of the hardship of Famine Ireland. "That's right good gintlemen, niver forget when ye've had yer males, to thank the Lord as sends them.May ye niver know what it is to crave food and may ye niver see what I have seen here in the town o' Galway. . . .I've gone out of a morning gintlemen, (his lip quiverd as he spake) 'and seen them lying dead in the square, with the green grass in their mouths." (p46) 

Of particular interest to readers here in the West will be the fantastic fold-out colour drawing of a crowded scene of the Claddagh here in Galway, by John Leech. It stretches to cover a triple-page entry included adjacent to the title page of the book, both pictured here. It is noteworthy to see the emphasis both Leech and Hole placed on thier time in the West and in the Claddagh of Galway that they would choose to include this image so prominently within the book. 

The Claddagh, Galway (click to enlaerge)

'A Fair at Leenane"

As an early travel guide around Ireland, highlighting places, landmarks, communities, people and the landscape around Ireland, hardly ten years after the Famine, it makes the book all the more incredible a read. To read this book brings to mind a pharse used by Hole to describe his trip through 'Connamara': 

It has been, indeed, a privilege and refreshment to wander amid these glorious scenes."