Shields Archive - Letter from Sean O'Casey to Barry Fitzgerald, 1959

This day marks the birth of William Joseph Shields in 1888. A civil servant, his first interest was acting and he followed his brother Arthur into the Abbey, taking the stage name Barry Fitzgerald to avoid any problems with his employer. His best roles in the Abbey were in Sean O’Casey plays, and from the late 1920s he found himself in film roles. Deciding to become a professional actor, he toured with the Abbey in the States in the 1930s, going into the film business. His defining moment in film came in 1944 when he starred as Fr Fitzgibbon alongside Bing Crosby in Going my way (1944). Nowadays he is perhaps best remembered as the match-maker MicaleenOg in The Quiet Man by John Ford, shot here in Galway by John Ford in 1952, a film in which his brother Arthur also starred. He died in Dublin on 4^th January 1961.

Today’s image, a letter dated 11 Dec 1959, is from Sean O'Casey, Flat 3, 40 Trumlands Road, St. Marychurch, Torquay, Devon addressed to Will (Barry Fitzgerald). O'Casey writes that he has heard that Fitzgerald was ill, he writes 'I hope you are up, or, if not up then sitting bolt upright in bed having another look at the world.'

For more check out the Shields Family Collection, housed in the James Hardiman Library, a descriptive list for the collection is available at http://archives.library.nuigalway.ie/cgi-bin/FramedList.cgi?T13 .

Padraic O'Conaire

The 28th of February next marks the 130th anniversary of the birth of the author Padraic O Conaire. Perhaps best known as a short-story writer, he was also a novelist and dramatist. Born in the "Lobster Pot" Bar here in Galway to Tomas and Cait O Conaire, he moved to his material grandparents in Ros Muc in 1894 following the death of his parents, and later to other relatives in County Clare. He found his way to London where he worked in the Civil Service for a while, but was most active in the London branch of Connradh na Gaeilge, before returning to Ireland to work as an organiser or timire for Connradh. He passed in 1928. For further information on him, Lesa Ni Mhungaile's biography of him in The Dictionary of Irish Biography available here in the James Hardiman Library provides an excellent short introduction to the man and writer.

During the period 1901–27 he published over 400 short stories in various newspapers and journals including "Inis Fáil", "An t-Éireannach", "Guth na nGaedheal", "United Irishman", "New Ireland", "Weekly Freeman", "Leinster Leader", "Irish Nation", "Irishman", "Freeman's Journal", "Free State", "Galway Express", "An t-Óglach", and "Fáinne an Lae". He also wrote five plays, a novel and over 200 essays on various topics.

Perhaps the most iconic image of Padraic is the statute erected in his honour in Eyre Square, and unveiled by his Blackrock College classmate Eamonn de Valera in June 1935. Albert Power was commissioned to create the memorial by a group of Galway citizens. The statue is now to be seen in Galway City Museum. The archives service holds a collection of correspondence, subscription information and press cuttings relating to the commissioning of the statue, information on Coiste Chuimhneachain Pádraic O Conaire is available at http://archives.library.nuigalway.ie/col_level.php?col=G2 .

Sigerson Cup exhibition at the James Hardiman Libary, NUI Galway

The staff of the Special Collections and Archives service in the James Hardiman Library have created a photographic display to celebrate the University’s hosting of this year's Sigerson Cup Gaelic Football competition on the weekend of 24/25 February. The University, then known as University College Galway (UCG), first won the competition in 1912. In all they have been winners on 22 occasions, including fifty years ago in 1962. A banquet celebrating that Golden Jubilee team is to be held in the Radisson Hotel on Friday 24 February where the photographic exhibition will be on display. Copies  of the photos , together with press cuttings relating to the various wins, will also be on show in the Sports Pavilion in Dangan that afternoon while the semi-final matches are on.

Barry McGovern, Ethna Tinney and Music for Galway

Currently in the process of being catalogued here at the James Hardiman Library is the Music for Galway Archive. Music for Galway is a group founded in Galway in 1981 with the goal of staging the very best of Irish and international classical music acts. Since the groups foundation they have staged hundreds of renowned groups, orchestras and musicians of all disciplines and catered to the musical passions and interests of so many in the West of Ireland.

As the process of cataloguing is continuing, which includes sorting and arranging the records into various groups and series, such as Administration, Productions, Press Files and Correspondence, and then describing and listing each item individually, the content of this archive is proving it to be a wonderful resource. 

Here are two items sure to be of interest: the first is a flyer from a New Year’s concert held in January 1987 at the Aula Maxima, here on campus at NUI Galway. The concert, which was also staged at the National Concert Hall, Dublin, features a piano recital of the children’s story The Story of Barbar by the renowned pianist Ethna Tinney. Tinney has been a regular musician with Music for Galway over their past. Interestingly, this event also featured a narrator in the form of the celebrated actor Barry McGovern. Though best known for his work in and portrayal of Beckett plays, the combination of Music for Galway, Tinney and McGovern must surely have been an incredible evening. 

The Story of Barbar, Jan 1987

. . . "Narrator - Barry McGovern

Looking Back: Much Ado for Druid and Hawk's Well in 1982

This year marks the thirtieth birthday of the Hawk’s Well Theatre in Sligo. As well as being a home to theatre for the people and communities of Sligo, Hawk’s Well has supported and developed some of the most successful of Irish theatre productions and companies for the past three decades.

Kicking it all off back in 1982 was a production by Druid Theatre of William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. It is fitting that this past month Druid once again took to the stage of Hawk’s Well with their currently touring production of John B. Keane’s Big Maggie.

On 12^th January 1982 the Druid production of Much Ado About Nothing featured the talents of Marie Mullen, Ray McBride, Sean McGinley, Rebecca Bartlett and many others. The production was directed by Gary Hynes. The Druid Theatre archive, which is proudly held here in the Archives service of the James Hardiman Library of NUI Galway, includes many records from this opening night in Sligo. Here you can view the original programme, cast list and some fantastic images from that original production at Hawk’s Well in 1982.   

 

The Balfour Album (1893-1895) now online on Europeana.eu

A Corner of Killeany Village, Aranmore

A recent initiative here at the James Hardiman Library saw the contribution and sharing of some of our digital projects with the Europeana.eu website. Europeana.eu is a portal site where cultural institutions from across Europe can upload, link and share their digital projects that range across books, paintings, film, music, archives, manuscripts and museum objects. As recent as early January 2012, the twenty millionth digital item was uploaded onto Europeana.eu. Now, on Eurepeana.eu, the Balfour Album, a truly unique collection of photographs depicting scenes and life in the west of Ireland in the late nineteenth century, is fully digitised and available.

At the James Hardiman Library, our Institutional Repository and Digitisation Librarian, Fergus Fahey digitised the Balfour Album in 2011. The incredible collection of photographs that make up the Balfour Album was created between 1893 – 1895 by the Belfast photographer, Robert John Welch. It was a gift to the former Chief Secretary for Ireland, Arthur J. Balfour in recognition of his support for the building of the Galway-Clifden Railway. The album was presented to Arthur Balfour in the summer of 1896, a year after the railway had opened. It remained in the property of the Balfour family until 1987 when it was acquired by the James Hardiman Library.

The James Hardiman Library worked closely with the Irish Manuscripts Commission (IMC) on this project. The IMC acts as a national aggregator for digital content coming from Irish cultural institutions for inclusion in Europeana. Now, for the first time, the unique collections and archives of the James Hardiman Library are shared to a truly global audience on Europeana.eu. You can view the items here

The Balfour album is also available as an online exhibition featuring an extensive history and background on the album and scenes they depict hosted by the James Hardiman Library here

Barry Fitzgerald

Last Saturday marked the 50^th anniversary of the death of Barry Fitzgerald, the well-known actor. Born William Joseph Shields in 1888, he followed his brother Arthur into the Abbey Theatre in 1915, taking the stage name Barry Fitzgerald so as not to draw the attention of his employers (the Department of Industry and Commerce).  Although he did not become a full-time actor until 1929, he played a number of notable roles, including Fluther Good in the premiere of The Plough and the Stars. One of Sean O’Casey’s favourite actors at the time. In 1932 he toured America with the Abbey, and returned in 1936 when the director John Ford cast him in his film version of The Plough and the Stars. Numerous roles followed, including parts in Howard Hawks's Bringing up Baby (1938), and in four more Ford movies, including playing a Welshman in How Green was my Valley (1941). His defining role, however, came in 1944 when he starred as Fr Fitzgibbon alongside Bing Crosby in Going My Way (1944), winning an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor for the role. He is probably best remembered now for his role as the match-maker Michaeleen Og in The Quiet Man (1951), a film which also featured Arthur Shields.

Information on Barry’s acting career and family can be found in the Shields Family Papers held here at the James Hardiman Library. The full descriptive list of the collection is available at http://archives.library.nuigalway.ie/cgi-bin/FramedList.cgi?T13 and some of the items from the collection are available from our digitized collections http://archives.library.nuigalway.ie:8080/digi/exbos/T13/SlideShow The collection includes many photographs of Barry, as well as correspondence by and about him. In a poignant letter to a fan written shortly after Fitzgerald's death in January 1961 Arthur Shields wrote of his brother 'Barry was a very shy little man and he was uncomfortable in crowds and really dreaded meeting new people, but he was not a recluse and did enjoy certain company, especially when the 'old chat' was good.' (see T13/311).