200th Anniversary of The Battle of Waterloo

The leaders were Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington commander of the British forces, Napoleon Bonaparte commander of the French forces and General von Blücher commander of the Prussian forces

Sir Hugh Lane (1875-1915)

This year marks the hundredth anniversary of the death of Hugh Lane. He was born in County Cork in 1875 and was brought up in Cornwall, England and went on to become an apprentice painting restorer and later became a successful art dealer in London. He maintained contact with Ireland and his aunt Lady Gregory through regular visits to Coole, Co. Galway. There he came in contact with family and friends who became the nucleus of the Irish cultural renaissance of the early 20th century

The voice of Banba: Brian O’Higgins / Brian Ó hUigínn (1882-1963)

As we are remembering this year Irish men and women who played a leading part in the 1916 Rising I would like to remember a lesser known personality from the neighbouring county of Meath who was in the GPO for the duration of the Rising. He was Brian O‘Higgins, the uncompromising republican, 1916 veteran, Irish teacher, poet in Irish and English, balladeer and historian. His brand of patriotism encompassed both the pen and the sword

Tom Kettle (1880-1916)

Tom Kettle whose 100th anniversary is on September 9th died during the Battle of the Somme along with over 3,500 other Irishmen. Tom Kettle was for some a compromised nationalist. While on an arms buying assignment to Belgium in 1914 he witnessed first-hand German atrocities against the civilian populations in Belgium and France. His experience led him to join the Daily News, become a war correspondent and he subsequently assisted in humanitarian work. When he returned to Ireland he answered Redmond’s call to fight for England with the promise of gaining Home Rule. His experience resulted in him breaking out of the insular approach of Irish nationalism and adopting a more European approach of which Ireland was a part – “My only counsel to Ireland is, that to become deeply Irish, she must become European”

Cardinal Wiseman at Maynooth

Nicholas Wiseman was born in Seville on the 2nd August 1802 of Irish parents. He was the son of James Wiseman (a Waterford merchant then living in Seville) and Xaviera Strange also from Waterford. He returned to Waterford after the death of his father in 1805 with his mother and siblings. He attended school in Waterford for some years until he was sent to Ushaw College, Durham in 1810. Having decided on a religious life he was selected to attend the reopened English College in Rome. He took his degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1824 and was ordained in 1825 and although only 26 he became Rector of the English College in Rome. He was appointed curator of the Arabic manuscripts in the Vatican and professor of Oriental languages in the Roman University

Exhibition collaboration between The John Paul II Library, Maynooth University Kildare Library and Arts Service and The Teresa Brayton Heritage Group

In August 2014 the John Paul II Library hosted a major exhibition outlining the life and work of Teresa Brayton in the foyer of the new library extension. The Maynooth branch of Kildare Library and Arts Service lent the Teresa Brayton archive to the John Paul II Library in order to mount the exhibition. Staff per-sonnel from both institutions are also members of the Teresa Brayton Heritage Group. This relationship facilitated co-operation and enhanced the success of the exhibition

Louis le Brocquy (1916-2012)

This month marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Louis le Brocquy who was born in Dublin on the 10th November 1916. In a career spanning over seventy years he has received many accolades and awards. He won the Premio Acquisito Internationale in 1956 and in Ireland he is the only painter to be included during his lifetime in the Permanent Irish Collection of the National Gallery of Ireland. He received an honorary D. Litt. from UCD in 1962 and has received honorary PhDs from Dublin Institute of Technology and Dublin City University. His work is exhibited in many public collections including the Guggenheim, New York and the Tate Modern, London

Kuno Meyer (1858-1919) and Peadar Ó Laoghaire (1839-1920)

In Special Collections we hold a reproduced copy from the June edition of Studies 1920 titled Canon Peter O’Leary and Dr. Kuno Meyer by Douglas Hyde. Their names had already been linked in June 1911 when on the same day Dublin Corporation conferred the Freedom of the City on both men and Cork City followed suit the following September. Douglas Hyde writes “It seems altogether reasonable to couple Father Peter with Dr. Kuno Meyer…….because these two, each in his own way …did work for Irish nationalism through the medium of Irish literature, which nobody else did…..Kuno Meyer established the School of Irish Learning, bringing us back into the long past centuries. Father Peter grasped us as we are in the present, and by his masterly handling of the living speech projected us along the road which we must travel…..

Sir Hugh Lane (1875-1915)

This year marks the hundredth anniversary of the death of Hugh Lane. He was born in County Cork in 1875 and was brought up in Cornwall, England and went on to become an apprentice painting restorer and later became a successful art dealer in London. He maintained contact with Ireland and his aunt Lady Gregory through regular visits to Coole, Co. Galway. There he came in contact with family and friends who became the nucleus of the Irish cultural renaissance of the early 20th century

The Domesday Books – the great survey of England

Special Collections has recently added the Domesday Books to its collections. This collection was photo-zinchgraphed by Her Majesty’s command at the Ordnance Survey Office, Southampton under the direction of Colonel Sir H. James between the years 1861-63. The counties in our collection which are individually bound include Berkshire, Hampshire, Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Cornwall, Devonshire, Dorsetshire, Somerset, Wiltshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Middlesex, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Cheshire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire, Nottinghamshire, Huntingdonshire, Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk and Lancashire