(1) Introduction

In January 2020 Brendan Scaife MRIA suggested that I examine the contents of two boxes of notes and draft articles by William McFadden Orr MRIA, FRS held in the Library of the Royal Irish Academy (RIA). He is known internationally for the Orr-Sommerfeld equation but I had no previous knowledge of his work as a major Irish scientist. It was necessary to obtain a reader’s card but this was a mere formality. Following an initial reading the contents were clearly very advanced and would be of interest to a researcher dealing with the history of science in Ireland in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. I was satisfied that a full study could be useful and would highlight ideas not discussed in detail in other publications. My attempts to turn his notes into readable articles are on-going. However, they are not appropriate for undergraduates.

Fig.1-2 Examples of notes in the archive of William McFadden Orr

The notes can be divided into two main categories. All were written in pencil or ink. Short notes of two to four pages were probably solutions to questions or possible suggestions for research. Longer notes in excess of twenty pages may have been presentations to graduate audiences or unfinished drafts of articles for publication. However, none were arranged in sections with specific titles considered as standard in published documents. This would suggest that they were not intended for immediate publication. All contained pages and equations that were adequately numbered in ascending order. Consequently, there was no difficulty in following a proper sequence in any document. I concentrated on the longer notes of twenty pages or longer. The contents usually referred to comments or critical analysis of articles by other leading researchers. An interesting point is that diagrams were non-existent. I assume that this was due to the type of mathematical analysis and his background in mathematical physics. There was considerable use of the Greek alphabet to denote particular parameters which were awkward in typing with Microsoft Office 2016. Although the notes were obviously intended for personal use by McFadden Orr the general lay-outs were quite readable. Any difficulty was in following the advanced technical contents as a proper understanding of text was required to avoid errors. Topics were definitely not intended for undergraduate audiences. I would recommend that the best option is to proceed slowly in any similar examination of archives. I did not find the work to be boring or repetitive and have never regretted my decision to proceed with the study.

Fig.3 Headings from working notes from beginning (1) to the creation of a first draft (6) with title Stability of motion of a viscous liquid

Topics covered a wide area from hypergeometric series, Fourier integrals, electromagnetics, thermodynamics, viscosity and fluid dynamics. I could not avoid noticing that his depth of analysis and understanding was impressive beyond my ability to describe. He was obviously a genius. Development of the Orr-Sommerfeld equation in fluid dynamics to describe modes of disturbance to a viscous parallel flow is his most widely known contribution to research.

(2) Biography

William McFadden Orr retired in 1932 following a very distinguished career in the areas of physics and electrical engineering. He was Professor of Mathematics in the Royal College of Science in Dublin and made major contributions to mathematical physics.

Fig.4 Royal College of Science for Ireland (Image from RIA AP 1907/11:
An historical sketch of the Royal College of Science from its foundation to the year 1900 / William Barrett MRIA. Dublin: 1907)

McFadden Orr graduated in mathematics at age nineteen from the Royal University of Ireland. He attended St John’s College Cambridge and in 1888 became Senior Wrangler followed by a fellowship. In 1892 he was appointed Professor of Mathematics in the Royal College of Science for Ireland and transferred in 1926 to University College Dublin. On 29 December 1903 McFadden Orr was proposed for membership of the RIA and duly elected as of 16 March 1904. He was elected to the Royal Society in 1909 and received an honorary DSc from Queen’s University Belfast in 1919. Unfortunately, he died within a year of retirement in 1933 at age 68.

Fig.5 Section of William McFadden Orr’s candidate certificate for
membership of the Royal Irish Academy dated 29th December 1903

McFadden Orr’s studies covered a wide area. His early publications dealt with hypergeometric series and Fourier integrals. Later publications examined problems in mechanics, thermodynamics and electromagnetics. A small book titled Notes on thermodynamics for students was highly regarded for its precision in formulation of scientific principles. He published notes on the work of Rudolf Clausius in entropy and irreversible processes. His work on the stability of steady motion of a liquid was well known internationally and became important for research in aerodynamics and fluid motion. Three unpublished notes were about viscous liquids. He may have intended to draft a textbook as he titled them as chapters one, two and three. The details were a critical analysis on papers by Lord Kelvin but his conclusions were based on his examination. For the electron theory that became popular in the second half of the nineteenth-century he was interested in establishing precision for a mechanistic concept. Three notes examined variations in the electromagnetic force of a voltaic cell with a thermoelectric circuit. He demonstrated that the total heat given out in the flow of electricity around a closed circuit was the equivalent of chemical and physical changes irrespective of the complicated nature of such changes. There was no publication or note on relativity. In general, his work was considered to rely on accurate definitions, logical rigor and clear understandings of fundamental concepts.

Fig.6 (upper) Letter of recommendation written by Sir Joseph Larmour on 7 December 1891 and (lower) thank you letter written by J. Morris on 18 July 1923

McFadden Orr had extensive correspondence with leading physicists of the late nineteenth-century. In particular, he corresponded with Sir Joseph Larmor over a period of twenty years on problems in electrical engineering. He corresponded with George Francis Fitzgerald about moving conductors and nature of electrons. Unfortunately, no technical details were recorded in the archives. His only controversy was a difference of opinion with Oliver Heaviside on the relevance of Hamilton’s Principle of Least Action. He believed that students should have a clear understanding and stressed its importance for theoretical physics and engineering. The letters were of a personal nature referring to his application for a professorship in the Royal College of Science and have no technical value. However, his views were obviously highly regarded within the international scientific community.

(3) McFadden Orr Archives (RIA MS 24 O 43 (a)-(b))

The following documents are typed from hand-written notes in both boxes in the archives. Contents are unchanged and no part had been added or removed in any document. This work is on-going and to date four separate notes have been edited and are available as PDF files.

• Thermodynamics and Electromagnetic Force of a Voltaic Cell
• Contact Difference of Potential
• Electromotive Force of a Thermoelectric Cell
• Viscous Liquids – Part 1 (in progress)

There is a total of around ten documents that could be reproduced as articles. This will probably take another twelve months with a number beyond restoration due to contents and lengths. Several consist of comments on articles by major physicists of the nineteenth-century. The emphasis is on mechanical and physical problems which could be due to his professorship in a technical college. They cover areas of viscous liquids, dilute solutions and comments on experiments. In the meantime the above list is available in the Library. I must stress that all documents are notes rather than draft articles and are a difficult read. Contents are exactly as written by McFadden Orr. My main concern is that approximately 1,900 equations and formulas handwritten in pencil or ink could be reproduced with serious errors in PDF files. Consequently, technical accuracy is my top priority. It is not my intention to reproduce any document where technical inaccuracies are likely to occur.

Fortunately, the McFadden Orr Archives contain the original document from the Royal Society awarding him the Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS) title. It is in good condition but has been folded to fit into a box with the other notes and letters.

Fig.7 Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS) title awarded to
William McFadden Orr on 7 May 1909 signed by its secretary Joseph Larmour

He has four major articles published in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. The award also includes a note reminding McFadden Orr of the annual subscription to the Royal Society. I concluded that some things do not change with time.

Fig.8 Volumes for Section A of the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy in the library

For a listing of publications by William McFadden Orr, please see the PDF link.

By Brian Patrick McArdle

On 11 October 2022 the Royal Irish Academy hosted the launch of an exhibition marking the life and career of Professor Jan Łukasiewicz (1878–1956), a Polish logician and philosopher whose work has been instrumental in the developments of both academic fields. Some of his most important work was completed in Ireland after the second world war, while he held a Professorship of mathematical logic at the RIA.

Fig.1 Royal Irish Academy meeting room with Professor Jan Łukasiewicz exhibition on display

I was fortunate enough to play a small role in bringing this exhibition to fruition. I must confess that I was unaware of Łukasiewicz’s work before I was contacted by the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Dublin fortunately Łukasiewicz’s life and work in his native Poland was well covered by my colleague, Professor Jan Jadacki. Drawing on collections in the Library of the RIA and the National Archives of Ireland, I was able to uncover some of the more obscure details of Łukasiewicz’s time in Ireland.

The brilliance of Łukasiewicz’s mind ensured that his name would be recorded for posterity; that his academic achievements came in a life that experienced the devastation of two world wars, and exile from his home in Warsaw in his late sixties, was nothing short of remarkable. But even in a remarkable life, the story of how Łukasiewicz and his wife Regina ended up in Dublin is wonderfully bizarre. Having fled Poland towards the end of the war, the Łukasiewiczs found themselves in Brussels in February 1946, with few prospects before them. There Łukasiewicz met a Polish-speaking Irishman in the uniform of a Polish officer. There can’t have been too many of those floating around Belgium at the time, but we have no idea who this man was. He urged Łukasiewicz to travel to Dublin, where he said the Irish government would welcome displaced distinguished scholars.

Fig.2 Royal Irish Academy council minutes from 18 September 1946 recording the appointment of Łukasiewicz to the Professorship of Mathematical Logic

That proved to be the case, and that summer the Łukasiewiczs had an audience with Taoiseach Éamon de Valera. Łukasiewicz recorded the meeting in his diary: ‘He told me that he would take care of my fate and he kept his word.’

It’s particularly appropriate for the exhibition to make its debut in the Meeting Room of the Royal Irish Academy, because de Valera kept his word by arranging for the RIA to appoint Łukasiewicz as a Professor of mathematical logic, funded by the Irish government.

Fig.3 Irish dedication to Éamon de Valera in Logika I metafizyka (RIA C/21/3-6) translated as ‘In honour of Éamon de Valera, a great statesman and scholar.
It is with thanks to him that Jan Łukasiewicz was able to spend the last years of his creative life in Dublin, welcomed after being expelled from his homeland.’

On 18 November 1946 Łukasiewicz delivered his first public lecture in Ireland in that very room. The Irish Press carried a detailed report the following day. Łukasiewicz, it observed, was a

Professor without a chair, a man without a home. This country has given him shelter and a position in keeping with his eminent reputation. This is more than a gesture of sympathy towards a distinguished foreigner. To have a man of Dr Łukasiewicz’s standing amongst us to aid the cause of advanced study is a national gain.

His appointment as a Professor in the Royal Irish Academy was highly unusual, though not without precedent again at the behest of Eamon de Valera, the Academy had appointed Erwin Schrödinger as a Professor of theoretical physics in 1940, if only for six months while the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies was being set up. As far as I can ascertain, apart from Schrödinger and Łukasiewicz only two other people have ever been appointed as Professors of the Academy: Gerhard Besu and Ernst Lewy.

During the decade in which he lived and worked in Dublin, Łukasiewicz was able to reconstruct and publish work he had abandoned in Warsaw, and to conduct new research in the field of symbolic logic. It was a period later described by one of his former students as ‘one of the most fruitful of his scientific career’ and led to the completion of his magnum opus, a monograph titled Aristotle’s Syllogistic from the Standpoint of Modern Formal Logic.

Fig.4 Title page and spine of monograph titled Aristotle’s Syllogistic from the Standpoint of Modern Formal Logic (RIA MR/26/H/32)

The challenge of an exhibition like this (one that’s true of all life writing apart from full-length, biographical treatment), is that it’s very difficult to distil a person’s life into a handful of information panels especially one filled with so many incidents and achievements. One of the real advantages of the format, however, is that the visuals can offer counterpoints to the text and pose questions that the physical restrictions of a word count don’t allow. As an example, there’s a wonderful photo of Łukasiewicz and his wife Regina on one of the panels, taken shortly after their arrival in Dublin. They’re both smiling, and we can only imagine their relief at having landed in what would prove a safe haven after the traumatic experience of fleeing their homeland.

Fig.5 (left) Jan and Regina Łukasiewicz shortly after their arrival to Dublin in 1946 (Image: Irish Press, 19 November 1946; courtesy the Irish Newspaper Archive)
Fig.6 (right) Jan Łukasiewicz as the laureate of the Science Award of the City of Warsaw, 11 November 1935 (Image: Public domain)

When we juxtapose that photo with those of Łukasiewicz in his former life as a distinguished academic in Warsaw, the exhibition asks us to ponder just how deeply the couple were affected by the loss of that life in Poland, with its friendships and the academic connections Łukasiewicz formed in the Lvov-Warsaw School of Philosophy.

Though the distance of time has somewhat dimmed the public’s memory of his time in Ireland, it’s worth noting that Łukasiewicz’s achievements were certainly recognised here during his lifetime, and indeed after his death. After his appointment as Professor of mathematical logic, he was invited to deliver lectures at Queen’s University, Belfast, in 1950 and 1952.

Fig.7 (left) Donation signed by Łukasiewicz of his paper On the intuitionistic of deduction (RIA AP 1952/39)
Fig.8 (right) Donation from Łukasiewicz of his paper Sur la formalisation des théories mathématiques (RIA AP 1953/27)

Even before his book on Aristotle’s syllogistic had been published, the gifted English mathematician, logician and computer scientist Alan Turing arranged for Łukasiewicz to visit the Victoria University of Manchester. In recognition of his academic achievements, on 5 July 1955 Łukasiewicz received an honorary doctorate from Trinity College Dublin. An honorary degree is the highest honour that a university can bestow upon an academic, though University College Dublin found a suitable posthumous alternative, at least for a time. Its Department of Computer Science was housed in what was called Łukasiewicz Building for about a decade in the late 1990s and early 2000s; an apt honour for an academic whose work was so fundamental to the development of computer science.

Fig.9 Letter from Łukasiewicz to Boole Committee dated 20 May 1954
expressing his regrets at not being able to attend centenary celebrations (RIA MS 12 K 45)

It’s always a thrill to reconstruct a person’s life, especially one so influential in such varied fields of academic study, and whose work paved the way for intellectual and technological innovations that are fundamental to the way that we live today. An appreciation published in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy after his death neatly encapsulated his career: ‘His [work] … marks a turning point in the history of logic … His analyses of essential logical problems are distinguished by great clarity and extraordinary beauty of style.’

Fig.10-11 Obituary notice from Royal Irish Academy proceedings minutes of 1955-56 session (RIA 43.D)

Dr Eoin Kinsella

Keep an eye out for publication next year of an entry on Jan Łukasiewicz in the Dictionary of Irish Biography. The exhibition produced by the Polish Embassy of Ireland and hosted by the Royal Irish Academy continues until the end of the year.

Fig.12 Cover of Jan Łukasiewicz exhibition booklet

Defining provenance

First, a definition: ―provenance is the record of location or ownership of a work of art or significant scholarship. In the context of a library’s acquisition policy, it can often reveal a sequential history of readership which in turn reveals unexpected shared interests across generations.

Ownership of Russell’s Principles of Mathematics

Fig.1 Inscription of R.A.P. Rogers June ’05 in blue pencil on the title page of RIA MR/41/R/33

In 1905, Reginald Arthur Percy Rogers FTCD, MRIA bought a copy of Principles of Mathematics (1903) vol 1, by Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), from the Crampton Book Shop, Crampton Quay, Dublin. So much is clear.

Fig.2 The Crampton Book Shop booksellers stamp found on upper paste-down leaf of RIA MR/41/R/33

He referred to it in ‘The Logical Basis of Mathematics’ (1908); see PRIA (section A) vol 27 (1907-1909) pp. 182-193.

Fig.3 Gold spine label of the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy (PRIA), vol. 27 1907-1909 A (RIA RR/42/B)
alongside section of page 193 referencing B. Russell

However, certain important clarifications are required. Russell never published a second volume. Instead, he collaborated with Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) on Principia Mathematica, appearing in three volumes (1910, 1912, 1913).[1] What Rogers possessed had rapidly become an intellectual ‘shipwreck’, beached by its youthful captain who had intended to augment vol 1 with a sister-ship.

Fig. 4 Section of Reginald Arthur Percy Rogers’ candidate certificate for membership
of the Royal Irish Academy dated 8th December 1902

Rogers bought the book described here in July 1905, that is, at the beginning of TCD’s long vacation. He had been elected MRIA in 1903, the year of Principles’ publication. In 1911, he published A Short History of Ethics, Greek and Modern (London: Macmillan) and Wildflowers, a Book of Verse (London: Ousley). His college career is not a central concern here.

Annotations and inscriptions

Fig.5 Pencil and ink annotations written on lower fly-leaf of RIA MR/41/R/33

Two longer-term factors deserve attention. These are―(1) Rogers’ annotations and (perhaps) annotations by other, later owners, and (2) the sequence of subsequent owners’ inscriptions. A full understanding of the annotations would require the expertise of a logician and/or mathematician.

1. The book contains 528 pages of Russell’s text. My estimate is that more than half of these bear annotations whether verbal or by way of underlining and similar marginal indicators. The verbal ones involve several colours of pencil annotation, mainly blue and red. Lead pencil annotations are extensive, and are not limited to the pages of text but appear also on fly-leaves, paste-downs and other vacant spaces.

Fig.6 Pencil annotations covering upper paste-down and fly-leaf of RIA MR/41/R/33

PePen and ink annotations may have been inscribed on a second or further occasion of Rogers’ reading the text: on page 12, one finds two distinctive nibs at work.

Fig.7 Pen and ink annotations in two distinctive nibs on page 12 of RIA MR/41/R/33

Density of annotation varies: for example, in chapter 2 (‘Symbolic Logic’, pp. 10-32) all but 3 pages are annotated; compare this with chapter 25 (‘The Meaning of Order’, pp. 207-217) which is largely unannotated―but note the final paragraph.

Fig.8 Example of heavily annotated pages from chapter 2 vs.

Fig.9 chapter 25 with only final paragraph underlined in blue pencil RIA MR/41/R/33

2. It cannot be assumed that all these annotations and markings are Rogers’ work; empirical demonstration is advisable.[2] Born in Kilkenny on 10 August 1874, he died aged 50 on 17 October 1923 at 142 Leinster Road Dublin,[3] having been (it seems) a recent patient in Mercer’s Hospital. My understanding is that his copy of The Principles of Mathematics passed into the possession and care of Francis La Touche Godfrey (born in India; d.1974), a fellow of TCD and Rogers’ colleague in the Department of Mental and Moral Science (i.e. philosophy).[4] Godfrey may have been an executor, formally or informally.

3. What traceably happened next was less predictable; the annotated volume passed into the possession of William Palladius Allen (1892-1984), a member of the Catholic teaching order, the Christian Brothers. For many years Brother Allen taught mathematics in the O’Connell School, North Richmond Street Dublin, and assembled an astonishing personal library; this is now preserved in NLI.

Fig.10 One of the many book-stamps of the Christian Brothers Library within RIA MR/41/R/33

HoHow Rogers’ copy of The Principles floated free from the Allen Collection is not yet clear. It was purchased c. 2013 from the Belfast antiquarian book sellers, Peter and Briad Rowan, and was donated to the RIA Library in 2017. The elaboration of this embryonic provenance will tell several important stories about the reception of new philosophical thinking in Ireland and (perhaps) the teaching of contemporary ideas, the preservation of evidence, and the role of collectors (individual and institutional) in the transmission of culture.

Notes:

1. For a succinct account of the relationship between these two publications, see Ray Monk’s article in ODNB.
2. TCD Library’s Manuscript Department contains a number of published philosophical texts (by Kant, Hegel and others); these are preserved with the papers of the Revd Francis La Touche Godfrey. Items particularly relevant are (1) G. W. F. Hegel, The Logic of Hegel, Translated from the Encyclopaedia of Philosophical Sciences by William Wallace. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1892, 2nd ed. revised and augmented (TCD Ms 6247). And (2) John Neville Keynes, Studies and Exercises in Formal Logic. London: Macmillan, 1884 (TCD Ms 6256).
3. His parents were Robert Hawkesworth Steele Rogers (clergyman) and Frances (née Wilmott).
4. Cataloguers of F. La T. Godfrey’s papers describe a copy of W. Wallace, The Logic of Hegel (1892) ‘formerly the property of R. A. P. Rogers’; other philosophical works of the same provenance are also preserved.

By Bill Mc Cormack, MRIA

Discovering Shelfmarks

Zoë Comyns is the inaugural Podcaster in Residence at the Royal Irish Academy 2021/2022 and the presenter and producer of the RIA podcast series Shelfmarks. The podcasts were funded by the Arts Council Literature Project Award.

I had paid many visits over the years to the Royal Irish Academy Library sometimes for talks or exhibitions, other times just dropping in to have a look. I loved that you could slip away from the Dublin crowds and within minutes there was a place dedicated to knowledge and discovery, that felt like a sanctuary from the commercialism of the city centre. I loved the peace, the green table lamps as I read, even with the Vierpyl busts of Roman emperors keeping an eye on me as I nosed around. In the RIA you’re always in interesting historical company. Any book or reference could lead to a lifetime of study.

Fig. 1 Royal Irish Academy reading room with green table lamps and Vierpyl busts

As Podcaster in Residence of the Royal Irish Academy I had greater access to its wonderful Library collections. My interest lies in finding new ways to connect the past and present and through the series to create an audio bridge across centuries that deepens our understanding of nature and how our relationship with it has evolved through each discovery. The aim for the podcast series Shelfmarks was to select an object, book or person associated with the RIA collection and to give an insight into them and the Academy’s work on the natural world. Each episode starts with a short audio essay by me and then gives way to conversations and readings by a weekly guest. I commissioned six writers; Kerri Ní Dhocartaigh, Jane Clarke, Neil Hegarty, Siobhan Mannion, Amanda Bell and Manchan Magan and asked them to respond to the selected theme/person.

Connecting with the naturalist Robert Lloyd Praeger

My initial fascination with people connected with the library was through a copy of The way that I went by Robert Lloyd Praeger (1865-1953) from my family home. Praeger was a naturalist, librarian and member of the RIA. He was its president from 1931-34. I found him a fascinating figure and later when I realised his long standing connection with the RIA I wanted to make a programme about him. In fact, I came across so many fascinating figures who were associated with the Academy, the series started to form.

Fig.2 Frontispiece portrait of Robert Lloyd Praeger and title page from The way that I went (RIA D/1167)

Praeger wrote so many papers and books it was initially overwhelming as to where to begin to tell his story but with writing for the ear I decided to structure a piece about him by writing one word for each of the papers and books he wrote. A small offering to give insight into his vast studies of over 800 papers and 24 books, not to mention the thousands of miles he spent walking across Ireland exploring, note taking.

Fig.3 Map of Ireland from Praeger’s The way that I went (RIA D/1167)

In the opening pages of The way that I went Praeger mentions his long and frequent walks around Ireland. He worked all week as a librarian and took off at the weekend tramping thousands of miles across the country. Each walk was accompanied by the idea he mentions in the introduction to The way that I went of ‘stopping often, watching closely, listening carefully’. These mantra-like watchwords can guide the listener to take stock of the natural world, what they see around them and as Praeger did note it and appreciate it. Each episode in the series hopes to guide the listener in this way too to hone in on a location, or a person and the natural world and ask us to think more carefully about our place in it.

Fig.4 (left) Album title page containing an illuminated address by the Belfast Naturalists’ Field Club presented to Robert Lloyd Praeger on 4 July 1893 (RIA 12 T 24)
Fig.5 (right) Photograph by Robert Welch of the Belfast and Dublin Naturalists Field Club taking tea at ”The Glen”, Newry, 6 July 1893 (RIA 12 T 24 no.78)

Poet Jane Clarke joined me for this episode and we took a walk through her local area in Wicklow and chatted about Praeger, the natural world and she read two specially commissioned poems for the episode.

Journey with the mythical Cessair

Another episode of Shelfmarks is prompted by the figure of Cessair, mentioned in the Leabhar Gabhála (Book of Invasions).

Fig.6 (left) Leabhar Gabhála from the Book of Lecan containing the myth of Cessair (RIA MS 23 P 2 folio 186 verso)
Fig.7 (right) Noah’s Ark depicted in the Book of Ballymote (RIA MS 23 P 12 folio 1 verso)

In the myth Cessair is the grand-daughter of Noah and daughter of Bith. Bith is refused passage on The Ark and so Cessair builds three ships to seek out a new land. Each ship is crewed by fifty women and on a seven year journey two of the ships sink. The third ship containing Cessair, fifty women, her husband Fintan, her father Bith and her brother Ladra arrive in Ireland. She takes the first step on Irish soil.

Writer Siobhán Mannion joined me on the episode to explore this myth, the taking of Ireland and how becoming at one with the natural world becomes essential to survival.

What surprised me about making this episode is the amount of people who got in touch to say they had never heard of Cessair. Through Shelfmarks it’s been exciting to let people know about her and other fascinating figures and topics in the collection: Cynthia Longfield (1898-1991) and her work of dragonflies, Richard Kirwan (1733-1812) and the measuring the weather, the mythical Book of Hy-Brasil (Book of O’Lees) and nature cures, the Dr Wilhlem Doegen (1877-1967) recordings and St Brigid, ornithologist and naturalist Richard Manliffe Barrington (1849-1915) and journeys to Rockall as well as stories of the last wolf in Ireland.

Fig.8 (left) Photograph by Cynthia Longfield Roberts of the dragonfly Anax Imperator
Fig.9 (tright) The mythical Book of Hy-Brasil/Book of O’Lees (RIA MS 23 P 10 ii page 4)

Fig.10 Plate IV from Praeger’s The way that I went (RIA D/1167) of Rockall, looking E.N.E. from a water-colour sketch by W.S. Green

All you have to do is step off the noisy street and into this place of wonder by foot or through your headphones.

All episodes in the Shelfmarks series are available online or via SoundCloud. Watch the 2021 Culture Night Special on YouTube.

The Royal Irish Academy Library holds a wide range of diverse material and one collection that is often overlooked is early twentieth century periodicals. This material is an important source when it comes to topical issues like the polar expeditions of the early 1900s.

On the 15th of June 1910, the ship Terra Nova left its moorings at Cardiff heading out on an expedition that would take the ship and its crew to Antarctica. The expedition leader, Captain Robert Falcon Scott, made it clear that his main objective was to secure the prize of being the first person to reach the South Pole. Among the crew he had chosen for the trip was the 33-year-old Irishman Tom Crean.

Fig.1 Newspaper image of Tom Crean, circa 1910, prior to him setting off on the Terra Nova expedition (Image: www.irishnewspaperarchives.com
Title: ‘The Kerryman With Scott’ from the The Irish Independent, 11th April 1912) [1]

Born on or shortly before February 16th, 1877, into an impoverished existence, Tom Crean, one of 8 brothers and 3 sisters born near Annascaul, County Kerry, joined the Royal Navy in July 1893. He was almost 16½ years-old when he signed up and following a harsh training period aboard HMS Impregnable on England’s south coast, Crean was deemed ready to undertake his first naval assignment. Still a boy sailor, Crean was ledgered to the ship HMS Wild Swan in December 1894 as she headed out of Plymouth bound for the Americas.

Fig. 2 Drawing of Lough Annascaul, County Kerry by George Victor Du Noyer (Image: RIA 3 D 6 (64))

In a seven-year period thereafter, Tom Crean’s career as a young seaman commenced with a 3½ year term of service on the Pacific Station whilst based in Esquimalt, Canada. From here HMS Wild Swan would attempt to safeguard the interests of the Crown in an area across the Pacific and its west coast that covered 133 lines of latitude from the Arctic circle down to the southern tip of Chile. In December 1901, Crean was in Australia with his ship Ringarooma, the ship was ordered to assist Robert Falcon Scott’s Discovery while it waited to depart for Antarctica. When an able seaman of Scott’s ship deserted after an altercation with a petty officer, Crean volunteered, and was accepted

Crean’s relationship with Antarctica would begin in New Zealand in 1901 aboard Discovery and continued with the ill-fated Terra Nova expedition in 1910. Over the course of his first two expeditions six lives had been lost and the dangers of polar exploration were clearly evident.

British National Antarctic Expedition 1901-1904

Discovery sailed to the Antarctic on 21 December 1901, and seven weeks later, on 8 February 1902, arrived in McMurdo Sound, where she anchored at a spot which was later designated “Hut Point”. Here the men established the base from which they would launch scientific and exploratory sledging journeys. Crean proved to be one of the most efficient man-haulers in the party; he spent more time than anyone in the harness, a total of 149 days. Crean accompanied Lieutenant Michael Barne on three sledging trips across the Ross Ice Shelf, then known as the “Great Ice Barrier”. One of these trips, on 30 October 1902, was to lay depots in support of the main southern journal which would be undertaken by Scott, Ernest Shackleton and Edward Wilson.

Fig.3 The Discovery brought to a standstill by pack-ice (Image: National Antarctic Expedition 1901-1904. London, 1907.)

During the Antarctic winter of 1902 Discovery became locked in the ice. Efforts to free her during the summer of 1902–03 failed, and although some of the expedition’s members, including Shackleton, left in a relief ship, Crean and the majority of the party remained in the Antarctic until the ship was finally freed in February 1904. After returning to regular naval duty, Crean was rewarded with the rating Petty Officer 1st Class on 10th September 1904, thanks to the recommendation of Scott.

While in the Antarctic the expedition members carried out scientific research and geographical exploration of the region. Its scientific results covered extensive ground in biology, zoology, geology, meteorology and magnetism which were published in the series National Antarctic Expedition 1901-1904. There are six volumes, published by the British Museum between 1907 and 1912 and the RIA Library was gifted a set by the museum.

Fig. 4 Title page National Antarctic Expedition 1901-1904; vol.1 Geology. London, 1907.

On this expedition they made a number of discoveries including that of an unknown Emperor penguin colony at Cape Crozier.

Fig.5 (left) Antarctic birds (Image: National Antarctic Expedition 1901-1904; vol.II, plate VIII)
Fig.6 (right) Emperor penguin and chick (Image: National Antarctic Expedition 1901-1904; vol.II)

Crean continued to build up his arsenal of skills at a number of shore-based naval training establishments. In 1906, Crean’s value became further apparent when Scott requested the Kerryman join him on the HMS Victorious. In the following years, Crean would join his captain on HMS Albemarle, HMS Essex and HMS Bulwark. By 1907, Scott was planning his second expedition to the Antarctic and Crean would not only be among the first of Scott’s recruits for this journey, but he would carry out epic feats of heroism.

Fig.7 (top-left) A volcanic cone on the mainland; the summit of Cape Jones. The Discovery in a gulf in the Lady Newnes “Piedmont afloat.” (Image: National Antarctic Expedition 1901-1904)
Fig.8 (top-right) Mount Huggins and the Royal Society range (Image: National Antarctic Expedition 1901-1904)
Fig.9 (bottom) Terra Cotta mountains, showing dykes of dolerite (Image: National Antarctic Expedition 1901-1904)

Terra Nova Expedition 1910-1913

Fig.10 Expedition ship Terra Nova during the 1910 British Antarctic Expedition (Image: Herbert Ponting, 1911 – public domain)

The expedition left in June 1910 and reached McMurdo Sound in January 1911. Scott’s attempt to reach the South Pole started November 1911 and had three stages; 640 km across the Barrier, 190 km up the heavily crevassed Beardmore Glacier to an altitude of 10,000 feet above sea level, and then another 560 km to the Pole. Crean was part of the final group of eight who were within 270km of their goal, but Scott did not select him to make the final journey. So, on 4 January 1912, Crean and two of his companions, William Lashly and Edward Evans, began to retrace their steps back to the base.

Fig.11 British Antarctic Expedition 1910-13. Petty officers Edgar Evans and Tom Crean (left) mending reindeer sleeping bags. 16 May 1911
(Image: Herbert Ponting – public domain; colourisation by https://www.mycolorfulpast.com/)

Evans had contracted scurvy as he, Crean and William Lashly were negotiating their way across the Great Ice Barrier in an effort to make it back to safety at the expedition base at Hut Point. Left bitterly disappointed at being excluded from the party who would accompany Scott on his attempt to reach South Pole, the three men faced a daunting 800-mile trek. When Evans’ condition deteriorated, Crean and Lashly lay their sick colleague on the sledge which they then hauled across the ice before reaching Corner Camp. Crean then ventured out on his historic solo journey of 36 miles in 18 hours to Hut Point to raise a rescue party. By the end of 1912, Scott and his companions had not returned with their remains finally being discovered by Crean and his fellow companions in November 1912.

On his return to Britain in 1913, Crean became one of the rare recipients of an Albert Medal for Bravery for his life-saving solo trek to save the life of Evans. On St Patrick’s Day 1914, Evans, relived his ordeal whilst addressing a packed audience at New York’s Carnegie Hall, recalling the point in their journey when he felt he could no longer continue, he stated:

“When I begged them to leave me, it was Crean who, speaking for both, turned and said to me, ‘If you are to go out sir, then we’ll all go out together.’” [1]

Fig.12 Moraines supported by ice, on the west side of McMurdo Sound
(Image: National Antarctic Expedition 1901-1904)

Crean would head south for the third and final time when, in May 1914, he was appointed second officer to Ernest Shackleton’s Imperial TransAntarctic expedition aboard the ship Endurance. It was an expedition on which he would distinguish himself still further by playing a primary role on what is considered the greatest survival and rescue tale in maritime history.

Fig.13 Photo of Tom Crean taken aboard the Endurance, 1914
(Image: Frank Hurley – public domain)

To read more about the incredible life of this Irish seaman and Antarctic explorer, pick up the recently published, Crean – The Extraordinary Life of an Irish Hero by Tim Foley https://tomcreanbook.com/. Or you can visit the RIA Library where we house a number of publications on Irish polar explorers, such as The Heart of the Antarctic: the story of the British Antarctic expedition 1907-1909 South: the story of Shackleton’s last expedition 1914-1917 a republished version of Shackleton’s originals, Great endeavour: Ireland’s Antarctic explorers by Michael Smith and Seek the frozen lands: Irish polar explorers by Frank Nugent.
Fig.14 Crean – The Extraordinary Life of an Irish Hero by Tim Foley (Merrion Press, 2023)
[1] Foley, T. (2020) Crean – The Extraordinary Life of an Irish Hero, 3rd edition

By Meadhbh Murphy and Tim Foley

Many of the medieval and modern manuscript sources housed in the Royal Irish Academy library offer valuable evidence for use of the script known as ‘ogam’, a distinctive writing system that was invented for the Irish language and is attested on stone monuments in Ireland and Britain from as early as the fourth century. The major new collaborative project OG(H)AM, run by researchers at Maynooth University and the University of Glasgow, is aiming to harness digital tools from different fields, including linguistics, archaeology and manuscript studies, to develop a better understanding of the changing historical contexts and contemporary social value of ogam script. Part of this work will involve documenting examples of the writing system from manuscripts in the RIA library collections.

Ogam looks a little bit like a barcode: in its earliest form, the standard alphabet was made up of 20 characters, each consisting of one to five short parallel lines or notches, with the value of each character depending on its position relative to a baseline. When inscribed on stone monuments, ogam symbols were typically written in three dimensions across the edge of the stone and read vertically. This system was later adapted and expanded to suit the format of the manuscript page, however, where the total number of symbols was expanded and characters were usually arranged along a horizontal stemline.

The early development of writing in the Irish language was closely tied to Latin learning, and many of the first attestations of ogam in manuscripts occur within discussions concerning Latin and Irish grammar or foreign alphabets (for more on this, see the OG(H)AM project blog here). Perhaps inspired by their exploration of different languages and writing systems, some early Irish scribes jotted down short marginal notes or signed their names in ogam alongside the texts that they were copying. An example of this is found in one of the oldest manuscripts in the RIA collections, known as the Stowe Missal (RIA MS D ii 3). This early ninth-century Mass-book mainly consists of Latin texts, but also includes a tract on the Mass and three healing charms written in Old Irish. The first eleven folios of the manuscript contain excerpts from the Gospel of St John, at the end of which the scribe has written a colophon in Latin but signed his name in ogam

Fig.1: The scribal signature SONID/DINOS in Dublin, Royal Irish Academy MS D ii 3 (‘The Stowe Missal’, early 9th century).
On the background and contents of this manuscript, see this online talk by Lars Nooij and also his 2021 PhD thesis available here
Image courtesy of Irish Script on Screen.

The ogam letters in this example, read left-to-right, spell out the name SONID. The meaning of this name is uncertain, however, as it is unattested elsewhere in early Irish sources; the reverse reading of DINOS has been suggested, but this sheds little additional light on the identity of the scribe. The Stowe Missal signature also lacks the so-called ‘feather marks’ that often appear at the end of the horizontal stemline used for manuscript ogam, although the evidence of other manuscripts indicates that this convention had already been adopted by some scribes by the ninth century.

The ‘Book of Ogam’ and cryptography in medieval Ireland

One of the most famous and visually impressive examples of manuscript ogam in the RIA collections is a text known as In Lebor Ogaim (‘The Book of Ogam’), preserved in the great fourteenth-century compendium of Irish learning known as the ‘Book of Ballymote’ (RIA MS 23 P 12). In Lebor Ogaim consists of over 100 different ‘alphabets’, most of which are variations of the standard ogam alphabet or other kinds of cryptic devices. The tract is immediately followed in the Book of Ballymote by the text known as Auraicept na nÉces, a primer of the Irish language that is heavily indebted to Latin grammatical teaching and includes ogam symbols alongside alphabet tables for Latin, Greek and Hebrew:

Fig.2-3: Ogam ‘alphabets’ from In Lebor Ogaim, followed by the beginning of Auraicept na nÉces
(‘The Scholars’ Primer’), the earliest grammar of the Irish language (RIA MS 23 P 12, fol. 170v).
Image courtesy of Irish Script on Screen.

Some of the variant versions of the ogam alphabet found in In Lebor Ogaim allude to legendary Irish figures or aspects of wider literary tradition. For example, the diagram to the far left at the bottom of fol. 170r in the Book of Ballymote (above left and enlarged in the image below) illustrates a variety of the script called Traigsruth Ferchertne (‘Ferchertne’s Foot-stream?’), perhaps alluding to the acclaimed chief poet of Ulster who appears in literary sources from around the ninth century. The middle diagram is named Fege Find (‘Finn’s Ridge-pole [Ogam]’), most likely referring to the famous Irish warrior Fionn Mac Cumhaill, while the diagram to the right is named Rothogam Roigni Roscadhaigh (‘Wheel-ogam of Roigne Roscadach’), possibly an allusion to a figure skilled in poetry or rhetorical speech (roscad). In these varieties of the script, the ogam symbols are arranged in a wheel or on the lines of concentric circles or squares:

Fig.4: Three variants of ogam from In Lebor Ogaim (RIA MS 23 P 12, fol. 170r). l-r: Traigsruth Ferchertne ‘Ferchertne’s foot-stream(?)’,
Fege Find ‘Finn’s ridge-pole [ogam]’, and Rothogam Roigni Roscadhaigh ‘Wheel-ogam of Roigne Roscadach’.
Image courtesy of Irish Script on Screen

Many of the alphabets found in In Lebor Ogaim do not occur outside of this source, and it is not always clear what practical use they might have had. It is probable, however, that they point to a broader interest in cryptography that can be traced to much earlier ideas about the exclusivity of literate knowledge. Thus in the preface to the tract, it is claimed that the ogam script was invented by Ogma, ‘a man well skilled in speech and poetry’, who designed it ‘as a proof of his ingenuity’ so that the speech ‘should belong to the learned apart, to the exclusion of rustics and herdsmen.’

In some cases, the use of ogam script seems to have offered momentary amusement or distraction for a scribe tasked with copying learned (and perhaps rather tedious or technical) material. An example of this is found in RIA MS 24 B 3, an early-sixteenth-century compilation of medical learning written by the North Connacht scribe Conla Mac an Leagha, who appears to have been a practising surgeon in the service of the Mac Diarmada lords in Magh Luirg (modern Boyle and Frenchpark, Co. Roscommon). When copying an Irish translation of standard Latin teaching on uroscopy (the diagnosis of illness through examination of urine), Conla lent an additional Irish flavour to his work by occasionally switching from Roman to ogam script:

Fig. 5: RIA MS 24 B 3, p. 31 (early 16th century): a fragment of a treatise on the contents of urine written in
Roman and ogam script by the medical scribe Conla Mac an Leagha.
Image courtesy of Irish Script on Screen.

Manuscript ogam in the modern period

Ogam script, or variants of it, continued to be used in Irish manuscripts well into the modern period. Numerous examples of the writing system are found in handwritten books of Irish-language prose and poetry produced during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, many of them associated with members of the prolific Ó Longáin family of scribes. Thus in RIA MS 493 (23 C 18), a miscellaneous collection of Irish lore, Mícheál Óg Ó Longáin (1766–1837) signed his name three times at the bottom of a page containing a list of Arabic and Roman numerals:

Fig.6: RIA MS 493 (23 C 18), p. 124. .

The first signature in the above image is in traditional ogam script, while the second is in so-called ‘ogam coll’, a cipher in conventional script in which vowels (which would be represented by one to five strokes in traditional ogam) are instead written with one to five cs. This code appears to derive from one of the variants of ogam referred to in In Lebor Ogaim as coll ar guta (‘C for a vowel’). The third signature is in so-called ‘ogam consaine’, another cipher in conventional script whereby vowels and diphthongs are replaced by certain combinations of consonants. In accordance with a key to this latter cipher given on the preceding page of the manuscript, the ‘í’ in Mícheál’s forename is represented by the letters NG, while the diphthong EA is replaced by the doubled consonant MM.

Although both the ‘ogam coll’ and ‘ogam consaine’ ciphers use conventional Roman script rather than the traditional strokes and notches of so-called ‘ogam craobh’, illustrations of these three varieties of ogam are commonly found together in later manuscripts. For example, one section of RIA MS 622 (23 K 34), a collection of genealogies written in the nineteenth century by an unknown scribe, provides keys to ‘ogam craobh’, ‘ogam coll’ and ‘ogam consaine’ along with didactic poems in Irish on the use of each variety and introductory notes in English. The scribe then copied out the Pater Noster and Ave Maria in ‘ogam coll’, followed by the formula for general confession in ‘ogam consaine’:

Fig.7: RIA MS 622 (23 K 34), p. 105: a didactic poem on ‘ogam consaine’ and
a key to that cipher, followed by the Pater Noster and beginning of the Ave Maria in ‘ogam coll’.

On the page immediately following these passages are notes on various alphabets, along with a copy of a sentence in traditional ogam script by one Seán Ó Conaire, probably the Fr. Seán Ó Conaire who was a priest of the diocese of Cloyne and died in 1773:

Fig.8: RIA MS 622 (23 K 34), p. 107: Copy of a signature in ‘ogam craobh’ by Fr. Seán Ó Conaire,
a priest of the diocese of Cloyne who died in 1773, followed by notes on various alphabets.
.

The Royal Irish Academy is also home to a large collection of manuscripts written by the Cork antiquarian John Windele (1801–1865), who had a particular interest in ogam. Windele is known to have travelled throughout Munster to seek out monuments with ogam inscriptions and to have even kept several ogam stones in his garden, referring to them as his ‘megalithic library’. One of Windele’s notebooks is now RIA MS 655 (24 M 35), which contains both sketches of stone inscriptions and various ogam alphabets derived from In Lebor Ogaim:

Fig.9 (left): RIA MS 655 (24 M 35), fol. 3v: ‘Wheel-ogam’ from one of John Windele’s notebooks.
Fig. 10 (right): RIA MS 655 (24 M 35), fol. 12r: Ogam inscriptions from one of John Windele’s notebooks.

Windele’s notebooks offer valuable insight into the activities of nineteenth-century Irish scholars and antiquarians who sought to preserve and decode ogam inscriptions on stone monuments across the island and further afield. It is clear, however, that ogam also had an enduring appeal that extended well beyond this archaeological record. The medieval and modern manuscript evidence for ogam offers a window into the development of ideas about languages, alphabets and cryptography in Ireland over a span of some 1,000 years. The manuscript collections of the Royal Irish Academy form a crucial part of this larger puzzle – much of which is yet to be fully deciphered.

Further reading:

• George Calder (ed.), Auraicept na nÉces. The Scholars’ Primer (Edinburgh, 1917)
• Damian McManus, A Guide to Ogam (Maynooth, 1997)
• Pádraig Ó Macháin and Sorcha Nic Lochlainn (eds), Leabhar na Longánach. The Ó Longáin Family and their Manuscripts (Cork, 2018)
• Erich Poppe, ‘Writing Systems and Cultural Identity: Ogam in Medieval and Early Modern Ireland’, Language & History 61:1–2 (2018), 23–38

Deborah Hayden, Department of Early Irish, Maynooth University.

About the Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI)

The Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI) is a national trustworthy digital repository (TDR) that provides long-term digital preservation and sustained access to Ireland’s humanities, cultural heritage, and social sciences data. We provide stewardship of digital data from a range of member organisations including higher education institutions, cultural heritage institutions (the GLAM sector of galleries, libraries, archives, and museums), government agencies, county councils, and community archives. Throughout 2022, we are working with our members to expand the reach of their diverse collections through archive outreach initiatives so that Ireland’s digital cultural heritage can be explored for education and enjoyment.

About Seachtain na Gaeilge and #ARAIrelandSnaG120

Between 1 and 17 March, DRI collaborated with RIA Library to promote their eclectic collections relating to the Irish language and culture as part of #ARAIrelandSnaG120, a social media campaign run by the Archives and Records Association (ARA) Ireland to mark the 120th anniversary of Seachtain na Gaeilge. Founded in 1902 as part of the Irish Revival by Conradh na Gaeilge, Seachtain na Gaeilge is an annual international festival promoting Irish language and culture in Ireland and around the world – it reaches over 1 million people on 5 continents annually. As part of the Seachtain na Gaeilge celebrations, archives, libraries, and repositories around the world shared collections related to the Irish language and culture across Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook using the hashtags #ARAIrelandSnaG120 and #CurdaighDoChartlann (#ExploreYourArchive).

COMHARTaighde

We started the celebrations by highlighting the COMHARTaighde collection, an academic journal of Modern Irish Scholarship founded in 2015 that is peer-reviewed by scholars from institutes both in Ireland and abroad. This journal publishes scholarly work of the highest standard, primarily in the areas of literary and cultural criticism, the study of songs and oral tradition, and Irish sociolinguistics. In 2020, the COMHARTaighde journal was deposited on the DRI by the RIA Library so that this important scholarly research could be preserved for sustained access and used as an educational resource by researchers and members of the public.

You can learn more about the collection in a blog post written by Dr Liam Mac Amhlaigh, a scholar of contemporary Irish literature and lexicography at Maynooth University.

Discover the collection on DRI

Fig.1: Dr Máirtín Coilféir, Dr Liam Mac Amhlaigh, and Professor Máirín Nic Eoin, founding editors of COMHARTaighde,
pictured together with technical consultant Ronan Doherty, at a launch at the Royal Irish Academy.

The Cathach of Colum Cille

The Cathach of Colum Cille is the oldest extant Irish illuminated manuscript, dating to c. AD 600. The surviving 58 folios contain psalms written in a Gallican version of Latin Vulgate. It is understood that the Irish missionary St Colum Cille copied the manuscript from a psalter lent to him by St Finnian. A dispute over the ownership of the copy was resolved by the King of Tara in one of the oldest copyright rulings, in which he is recorded as stating:

‘Le gach boin a boinin’ .i. laugh ‘le gach lebhur a leabrán’. (‘To every cow her calf, so to every book its copy’.)[1]

The Cathach provides a distinctive example of Irish majuscule script, where the letters are all the same height, and has been described as ‘the pure milk of Irish calligraphy’.[2] A full-colour 84-page booklet introducing readers to the provenance, art history, and biblical content of the manuscript can be discovered in the ‘Cathach of Colum Cille’ collection deposited on the DRI by the RIA Library.

You can learn more about the story behind this ancient manuscript by visiting RIA’s online exhibition on the Cathach, curated in 2021 to celebrate the 1500th anniversary of the birth of St Colm Cille.

Discover the collection on DRI

Fig.2: Manuscript page from the Cathach of Colum Cille.

The Doegen Records Web Project

At the start of 2022, the RIA Library published Tionscadal Gréasáin Cheirníní Doegen (the Doegen Records Web Project) on DRI. This valuable collection contains Irish dialect sound recordings created during 1928-31 as part of a systemic Irish dialect survey. The collection takes its name from the man who carried out the recordings on behalf of the Irish government, Dr Wilhelm Doegen (1877–1967), who was Director of the Sound Department at the Prussian State Library, Berlin. The content of the recordings consists of folktales, songs, and other material recited by native Irish speakers from 17 counties. The Doegen collection’s importance to the field of Irish dialectology is significant as many of the local dialects in the recordings are now extinct.

You can find out more about the history of the recordings in a blog post on the RIA Library website.

Discover the collection on DRI

Fig.3: Doegen records of Irish dialect recordings.

DRI looks forward to collaborating with RIA Library and our other members on more archive outreach campaigns throughout 2022 to reinforce the benefits of opening up archival collections for the greatest discovery and reuse. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook and see what you can discover!

Áine Madden, Operations and Communications Manager, DRI

[1] The king’s judgement, recorded by Maghnus Ó Domhnaill, is cited in Herity, Michael, and Aidan Breen. “The Cathach of Colum Cille: An Introduction.” Digital Repository of Ireland. Royal Irish Academy, June 2, 2021. https://doi.org/10.7486/DRI.9g55b6241.

[2] E.A Lowe quoted in Herity, Michael, and Aidan Breen. “The Cathach of Colum Cille: An Introduction.” Digital Repository of Ireland. Royal Irish Academy, June 2, 2021. https://doi.org/10.7486/DRI.9g55b6241.

The library took part in the #LibraryLoversMonth social media campaign with an alphabetical #LibraryAtoZ listing which showcased some of our activities and collections here at the Royal Irish Academy. Being new to the library, it was an excellent opportunity to learn more about the library by searching its collections and thinking about what services are available to readers and researchers. It was a fun and creative – but also very useful – exercise that involved planning, sourcing images, researching, and writing to create the daily content to be shared online. Here is a small selection of some of the most popular posts. For more, look back at the all the posts from #LibraryLoversMonth #LibraryAtoZ on Twitter and Instagram.

Ordinance Survey (OS) Collections – maps and much more

Fig.1 Ordnance Survey map – Dublin with close up of Dawson Street

Fig. 2 Antrim – Galway OS maps shelved in reading room

On 16 February, two posts about the Ordinance Survey (OS) collection of maps, memoirs, and letters generated the most likes in total on Twitter during the campaign. It had the second highest number of likes on Instagram. The library holds a full set of first edition OS maps drawn on a scale of six inches to one mile. Began in 1824, they were completed by 1842 and the full set includes each Irish county. Manuscripts by the survey’s researchers contain their correspondence and descriptions of topographical details and antiquities. Additional drawings and sketches complete this collection. The OS200 project aims to create a new digital corpus of historic OS records for Ireland using material from this collection.

Now and then – the Library’s reading room

Fig.3 (L) Vintage photograph of reading room; Fig.4 (R) Reading room – February 2022

Shared on February 15th, spotting differences in the reading room was the most liked post on Instagram. The challenge was to find changes between the library’s reading room then as represented with a vintage photograph and now with one more recently taken. Although the library looks pretty much the same, several changes stand out in the comparison. Readers and researchers might have noticed the addition of computers and staffed desks, changes to the location of card catalogues, different book supports and the colour of the lamps. These snapshots in time capture the library’s efforts to support our readers and researchers now and into the future. What will the reading room look like in 20 years?

Irish History Online – a collective national bibliographic catalogue

Fig.5 Irish History Online logo

February 9th featured the Irish History Online catalogue hosted and managed by the library. Part of a fourteen country European network, it is Ireland’s national bibliography and lists Irish history publications from the 1930s to the present day. On Twitter, this post had the highest number of retweets and generated the most impressions during the month.

Haliday Collection – centuries of pamphlets and tracts

Fig.6 Bound volumes of Haliday collection pamphlets

The tweet with the highest engagement rate during the campaign was about the library’s extensive Haliday collection of pamphlets and tracts posted on 8 February. This fully-catalogued collection of approximately 35,500 items is the most used resource in the library for studying Irish history – social, economic, political, and cultural – literature and antiquities from the late-16th to mid-19th centuries. The entire collection is organised chronologically with the pamphlets also arranged thematically. There is so much more to explore with this collection!

Fig.7 Thank you to all our followers!

From this retrospective review, the Library Lovers Month campaign gave us an insight into what our social media audience liked the most and found engaging. We take this opportunity now to thank our existing followers and welcome our new followers on Twitter and Instagram. Keep telling us what you like!

Anita Cooper
Assistant Librarian

On the 7th of December 2021, marking the 1500th anniversary of St Colum Cille, the long awaited online viewing of the 6th century Cathach of St Colum Cille was launched on the Irish Script on Screen (ISOS) website. This was made possible by the collaborative partnership of the School of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies and The Royal Irish Academy.

This Latin manuscript is the oldest surviving manuscript in Ireland containing some of the earliest examples of Irish writing. Although the Cathach is badly damaged it enjoys a unique status. It has the earliest known Irish copy of the Gallicanum Psalter in a very pure form. Its accompanying rubrics – known as the St Columba series – are the first witness of such headings in western Europe. See Prof. Pádraig P. Ó Néill’s excellent account of The Cathach accompanying the digitised images on the ISOS website.

The digitisation of this ancient medieval manuscript commemorates fifteen hundred years since the birth of Colm Cille (Saint Columba). Born in Donegal and patron of Derry (Doire Cholm Cille, the oakgrove of Colmcille), Colm Cille was a key figure in the early medieval Christian Church. He was greatly revered particularly in his native Ireland and in Scotland where he spent most of his missionary life, but also throughout Continental Europe.

Literacy and writing are a large part of the legacy surrounding St Colum Cille. He belonged to the period when Ireland was hailed as ‘The Land of Saints and Scholars’ from its recognition as a time known for educational excellence that produced such treasures as the Book of Kells, the Book of Durrow and many other priceless manuscripts adorning many libraries.

Fig.1 Medieval parchmenter, Stadtbibliothek Nürnberg, Amb. 317.2°, fol. 35r (source: Wikimedia)

As the Cathach was produced in the 6th century, it was made entirely of vellum. Paper did not become the dominant alternative for manuscripts until the 16th century. A vellum manuscript was made from prepared animal skins, typically calf skin, which had been bleached, stretched and scraped until smooth. The treated skin was then tensioned on a wooden frame and left to dry. Vellum was a very durable material and a precious commodity. The production of vellum required quite a considerable investment. The animal would have to be killed before its potential for meat or dairy was realised. Therefore, only the wealthiest monasteries could afford vellum. This material can pose quite distinct challenges when digitising manuscripts made of it.

Fig.2 The Cathach, Royal Irish Academy, MS 12 R 33, f. 6 r

Even the slightest temperature and humidity changes by a person in the room will have effects on a vellum manuscript. This material likes to buckle when it’s not happy and taken out of the controlled environment where it is stored can cause issues. These issues need to be addressed in the digitisation environment as they happen. As you can see here on this example (Fig.2) of one of the folios of the Cathach, the vellum repair which is made up of quiet a thin vellum, has already started to slightly move over time. When the manuscript was being assessed for digitisation, one of the major considerations was changes of humidity in the room and the significant factor it was going to impose. As the equipment needed to digitise the manuscript was going to heat up the room over the course of the day, a carefully planned setup of specifically placed humidifiers was needed to keep the room at an acceptable level of humidity. A stream of mist was also needed to cross paths with the vellum so it would stay moist throughout its time on the book cradle.

A Large format 5/4 Sinar camera with Phase One 1Q180 digital back was used to capture the images. It’s a case of old meets new – with the most cutting-edge digital back meeting one of the earliest camera styles.

Fig.3 Woman with camera, George Eastman House Collection (source: Wikimedia)

You might be familiar with this type of photographic image, depicting an old camera set up. Large format cameras were some of the earliest photographic devices. The reason we use a Large format camera on the ISOS project is based on the need to have access to a system that allows a mobility of focus. As we have already heard, the earliest Irish manuscripts were written on vellum or calf-skin, a substance that can produce a contoured surface. With the 5/4 camera we gain full control of manipulating and focusing on the four corners of the parchment.

Fig.4 Grazer conservation graded book cradle

We used a non-intrusive capture mechanism called a Grazer conservation graded book cradle to digitise manuscripts on the ISOS project. Sensitivity to the fragile nature of the manuscripts is paramount. Prior to digitisation, a manuscript is examined and assessed to determine what precautions might be necessary during image-capture. After the manuscript is assessed, the cradle is used to fully support the manuscript at all times so that no undue stress is placed on the spine.

To keep heat to a minimum we use a North Light Copy system with cold lights. Temperature and humidity are always constantly monitored and maintained.

Fig.5 Pictured here is folio 19 of the Cathach which has now gone live on the ISOS site

When digitisation of the complete manuscript is finished, we then move on to the processing stage – where metadata is generated for the manuscript allowing us to incorporate it with the images as a new digital asset into our digital repository.

Fig.6 Here you can see how clear the detail is on the high resolution image

Irish Script on Screen was a project created by the School of Celtic Studies in 1999. It was one of the first digitisation projects established in Ireland and to date it is one of the longest running in Europe. The main bulk of the ISOS users come from the academic and third level sector but it is also freely accessible to the public. This has allowed these once hidden away treasures to be enjoyed by everyone.

ISOS continues to be a very successful project. Its growth has been greatly facilitated by the development of institutional partnership agreements with all the major repositories of Irish manuscripts in Ireland, including the National Library of Ireland, the Royal Irish Academy and Trinity College Dublin to name a few. ISOS has also developed internationally with The National Library of Scotland, Chatsworth, The State Library of Victoria, KBR the Royal Library of Belgium and The British Library coming on board. Collaborations to date reach some 28 different institutions here and abroad.

There are now over 435 Manuscripts on ISOS and upwards of 80,000 large-resolution images. All images are free of charge. Standard images are open access. By filling out a registration form, one gains full access to specialist high-quality images.

The study of Irish paleography and manuscript iconography comprises a culture in which students must familiarise themselves with scribal forms, abbreviations, etc. to decipher and transcribe script. ISOS is uniquely set up to allow these introductions. Its wide resource of collections – that would otherwise be unobtainable to new scholars embarking on their first encounters with Old Irish – provides a space where the exploration of fundamental aspects of codicology can begin.

The development of the Irish Script On Screen project wouldn’t have been made possible without the generous collaboration of such institutions like the Royal Irish Academy, making their collections available for digitisation. The images along with the provision of relevant descriptive cataloguing information has resulted in the creation of an electronic resource which has become one of great cultural and educational importance. ISOS provides a powerful tool to progress the study of Irish paleography, manuscript studies and the exploration of Celtic culture for many future generations to come.

Anne Marie O’Brien
Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS)

A new year conveys the idea of time moving on – another year has passed. The sound of silence in the library reading room is an opportunity to reflect on the past with an eye to the future . The only noise heard is the ticking of the clock. Hanging overhead, its face oversees the activity below. Let’s now consider the history of this clock and its maker.

View of the reading room from the clock

In 1851, the Royal Irish Academy moved to its present location at Academy House on Dawson Street and over the next three years added the Reading Room and Meeting Room to the rear of the building. As Hayden writes in the preface of Chats on Old Clocks, ‘There is no house without its clock or clocks’. The RIA council meeting minutes of Monday, 3rd November 1856 records that £7 be paid for the library clock.

RIA council minutes, vol. X, pg.6 dated 03/11/1856

The clock is encased in mahogany. A black dial, hour/minute hands and roman numerals are set against a white face giving it a classical appearance. The name of the clockmaker – J. Booth & Son of Dublin – is printed in the middle of the face. The clock is centrally positioned in the reading room on the gallery level rail between the balustrades for readers to see and hear. As a mechanical spring-driven clock with a pendulum, winding is required periodically to ensure it keeps running and displaying the time accurately. Pendulum clocks were widely used up to the early 20th century and known for their precision.

Close up and inner workings of J.Booth & Son clock

James Booth and his son, also named James, were watch and clock makers located nearby at 4 Stephen’s Green from approximately 1841 to 1868. Today, this site is a coffee shop which one can also while away the time reading and working. Their clocks are still found around Dublin if you look carefully. There is beautiful blue, black and gold one housed in the fanlight at the entrance to the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland (RCSI). Another one, commissioned by the Guinness family, is seen in the clock tower of the walled garden of St. Anne’s Park.

St. Anne’s Park clock tower (South Dublin County Library https://hdl.handle.net/10599/1257)

RCSI entrance at 123 Stephen’s Green

In 1865, J. Booth and Son participated at the great Dublin International Exhibition of Arts and Manufactures. Exhibition Palace was specifically-built to host the event at Earlsfort Terrace and nowadays is home to the National Concert Hall. The Illustrative record and descriptive catalogue of the Dublin International Exhibition of 1865 records the exhibitors and exhibits, awards, and medal winners. The clock entered by James Booth & Son won both a jury award and medal. The jury award notes that their clock was the only one still keeping time for the duration of the exhibition from May to November! The medal was awarded for ‘excellent workmanship and design of his turretclock, also for cheapness.’

Catalogue page of jury award to J. Booth and Son (Internet Archive)

Catalogue page of medal for J. Booth and Son (Internet Archive)

So, returning to our lovely clock in the reading room, one of the staff procedures is to ensure that the clock is wound about once a week and displaying the correct time at the start of the day. That certainly has been the case for over 160 years and this particular clock is still keeping time in the reading room, albeit, with a little help from library staff!

Many a maker left his graven name,—

That by your leave stands yet on dial plate,—

With legend Fecit, of uncertain date,

Proud with the hope that time would bring him fame.

Death stopped the wheels of maker and machine:

Time! will you not their memory keep green?

[Hayden, Arthur. Chats on Old Clocks. London: T. Fisher Unwin Ltd., 1917.]

Anita Cooper, Assistant Librarian