This section pulls together some examples of the rich resources held by UCD for the period and commentary from our expert faculty and others. UCD is a major holder of archives of national and international significance relating to the period 1912 to 1923 and there are links included directly to these archives.
This UCD video explores the life, death, and historical legacy of Kevin Barry, the first Irish republican to be executed during the War of Independence.
It marks the Centenary of the execution of Kevin Barry on 1 November 1920, which galvanised opposition to the British campaign of counterterror in Ireland.
Dr Renate Marsiske delivers her keynote lecture "Mexican Revolution, National University and the formation of a revolutionary state: actors - conflicts - university autonomy: actors - conflicts - university autonomy" at Universities in Revolution and State Formation Conference in Univeristy College Dublin on 5th June 2016.
The role of higher education in revolutions was theme of international conference.
Student and academic revolts, from the 1790s up to the present day, featuring the French student uprisings of 1968, the Arab Spring, Easter 1916, and other major protest movements which led to the emergence of new states, were explored in this international history conference in Dublin.
Entitled “Universities in Revolution and State Formation“ the conference discussed the role played by universities, both their staff and students, in social, cultural and especially political change, from the early modern to the contemporary. It formed part of the University’s Decade of Centenaries programme which was launched by Minister for Arts, Heritage, and the Gaeltacht Heather Humphries in April 2015.
Dr Lucy Collins, UCD School Of English, Drama & Film, discusses the life of poet Francis Ledwidge and his First World War Experience for RTE Century Ireland.
Written and narrated by Dr Conor Mulvagh, Lecturer in Irish History with special responsibility for the Decade of Commemorations, UCD School of History & Archives, this video features imagery taken from UCD Archives' "Towards 1916" collection ('Fourteen photographs of the aftermath of the rising by an unknown photographer').
Enactment in Newman House on Culture Night 2014 of John Redmond’s speech at Woodenbridge with Dr Conor Mulvagh, UCD School of History and Archives.
Professor Michael Laffan, UCD School of History and Archives introduces his series of 10 lectures on The Irish Revolution. The course covers a tumultuous period in Irish history from the development of the Home Rule Party to the end of the Civil War…
Professor Diarmaid Ferriter, Professor of Modern Irish History, UCD School of History and Archives presents a video on the life and career of Eoin MacNeill.
UCD historians Dr Elva Johnston, Dr Eamon O'Flaherty, Dr Conor Mulvagh and Dr Meidhbhín Ní Úrdail of the UCD School of Irish, Celtic Studies, Irish Folklore & Linguistics the second of a 2-part series for History Hub to mark 1000 years since the Battle of Clontarf, charts how the 1014 battle was skilfully usurped and retold by various nationalists for political purposes. It focuses in particular on Daniel O'Connell in 1843 and the Irish Volunteers in 1914 both of whom artfully propagated the myth of a David and Goliath struggle of the Irish against powerful foreign oppressors…
Professor John Coakley, Emeritus Professor of Politics, UCD School of Politics and International Relations outlines the significance of the centenary celebrations for Ireland now.
Professor Diarmaid Ferriter, Professor of Modern Irish History, UCD School of History and Archives gives and overview of the period.
Professor Mary Daly, Emeritus Professor of History, UCD School of History and Archives outlines some of the significant volume of 1916 material digitised as part of the Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive (IVRLA) project.
Dr Tom Feeney, UCD School of History and Archives, from a podcast series features recordings of academic papers on the history of medicine and medical humanities, recorded at UCD Centre for the History of Medicine in Ireland.
Dr Fiachra Byrne, UCD School of History and Archives, from a podcast series features recordings of academic papers on the history of medicine and medical humanities, recorded at UCD Centre for the History of Medicine in Ireland.
Dr Marine Hay, Visiting Research Fellow in History at TCD, discusses the ways in which Irish advanced nationalists sought to prepare children and adolescents for their future role in the struggle for Irish independence.
Professor Robert Schmuhl, Walter H. Annenberg-Edmund P. Joyce Chair in American Studies and Journalism at the University of Notre Dame addresses P Pearse’s acknowledgedement that Ireland of the Rising was ‘supported by her exiled children in America’.
Dr William Mulligan, UCD School of History and Archives explores the complex origins of the conflict, which was the product of a series of international crises.
Dr Guy Beiner, senior lecturer at the Department of General History of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel presented as part of the Irish Memory Studies Network's Memory and Community lecture series in April 2014 in the UCD Humanities Institute.
Dr Conor Mulvagh, UCD School of History and Archives examines the circumstances surrounding John Redmond's Woodenbridge speech and the split in the Irish Volunteers.
Dr Conor Mulvagh, UCD School of History and Archives discusses the third home rule bill of 1912.
Professor Michael Laffan, UCD School of History and Archives explores the national and international circumstances of Ireland before Easter Week, 1916
Professor Michael Laffan, UCD School of History and Archives presents a series of 10 lectures on The Irish Revolution. The course covers a tumultuous period in Irish history from the development of the Home Rule Party to the end of the Civil War…
The Special Collections Department holds all of the books, pamphlets and journal titles printed before 1851, which were inherited from UCD’s antecedent institutions, the Catholic University of Ireland, the Royal College of Science for Ireland and the Albert Agricultural Training College. Special Collections also holds named collections, mostly 20th century and of important content or provenance. Some of these named collections contain a wealth of books, pamphlets, photographs and ephemera relating to the decade of centenaries, including the 1916s rising, the 1918 general election, and the civil war. A selection of the 1916 material has been digitised and is available on the digital library.
UCD Archives' core function is the curatorship of the archives of the University and the significant institutions which predated its foundation; and of those outstanding collections of private papers and institutional archives acquired and preserved to help document the foundation and development of modern Ireland. “History is made with documents. Documents are the imprints left of the thoughts and the deeds of the men of former times. For nothing can take the place of documents. No documents, no history.” Charles-Victor Langlois and Charles Seignobos, Introduction aux études historiques (1897). Translated by Eamon de Valera in a letter from prison to Kathleen O’Connell, his personal secretary, 2nd February 1924, enjoining her to safeguard his papers.
Featuring materials from the 1914 Dublin Town Planning Competition, held to guide the future development of the city, this newest collection in the UCD Digital Library brings together important early 20th century urban planning resources from the UCD Library, Special Collections; UCD's Architectural Library at Richview; and the Irish Architectural Archive. Eight entries were submitted in total, each relating to the Greater Dublin area, taking in Howth, Glasnevin, Ashtown, Dundrum and Dalkey. Out of the eight entries, only three are known to have survived, and these are available online for the first time as part of this collection.
Despite the discussion of such weighty issues as war and nationality, it was the seemingly less provocative subject of funding for the National Library which led to the biggest controversy of the year (1915)
Extract from the minute book of the (Irish) Belgian Refugees Committee, established in October 1914 as part of the wider British response to the flow of civilian refugees flooding out of Belgium in the weeks after the country became the epicentre of the twentieth century’s first global conflict.
Brief, functional, but extremely important letter sent from John Redmond, chairman of the Irish Parliamentary Party and leader of nationalist Ireland to his trusted agent, Tom Kettle, former Home Rule MP and UCD Professor of National Economics, who was then travelling between England and Belgium attempting to procure arms for the Irish Volunteers.
Pair of letters written by Mary Spring Rice to The O’Rahilly on 1 and 9 May 1914. They detail the early planning phases of what would ultimately become the Howth gun-running: the importation of a consignment of 1,500 rifles and 45,000 rounds of ammunition that had been purchased at Hamburg by Darrell Figgis and Erskine Childers.
Letters from Roger Casement to Captain Hans Boehm, during Casement's stay in Germany in 1915, as well as some associated material (photographs, medals) relating to his first contact with the German authorities in November and December 1914 and the formation of the Irish Brigade in 1915.
A stunning collection of 179 images relating to the Irish Civil War, the aftermath of the Easter Rising and the War of Independence.
A series of supplements was produced by the Irish Independent in December 2021, in conjunction with UCD. Richly illustrated with material from UCD Archives as well as the Military Archive, the features were compiled by Eilis O’Brien, UCD Director of Communication and Marketing, Dr Conor Mulvagh, UCD School of History and Kate Manning, UCD Archives and edited by Jon Smith, Irish Independent.
UCD Press is a peer-reviewed publisher of contemporary scholarly writing in a broad range of subjects including history, literary studies, music, and science. The Press has a special focus on Irish Studies. Their books are produced to the highest standards of design, editing, and printing while being publicised nationally and internationally. They are the publishing imprint of Ireland’s largest university, University College Dublin.
On UCD Press’s list is the ‘Classics of Irish History’, a paperback series which is noted especially for its reprints of little-known works of Irish political, social and literary history, many of which were controversial at the time of writing, and which sometimes express unfashionable or extreme views. The ‘Centenary Classics’ will be released at the beginning of 2016. This beautifully produced limited edition series examines the fascinating time of change and evolution in the Ireland of 100 years ago. Each volume is a first-hand account of individuals or events during the 1916–23 revolutionary period. They are each introduced by leading experts and academics in the field – giving a contemporary analysis of the original text – while a general series introduction sets the scene of the period. The complete series collectively tells the story of the birth of the Irish nation.
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The Irish State Administration Database captures the establishment, growth and evolution of Ireland’s state administration from the foundation of the Irish Free State in 1922 to the present. The database records information about all national-level public organisations, including central government departments and the agencies linked to them, commercial state-owned enterprises, and other relevant public bodies and institutions.
History Hub.ie is based at the UCD School of History & Archives. The ambition is to make the most recent academic research available on-line to everyone who loves history. History Hub podcasts feature historians talking about a whole range of subjects from medieval to modern history, both Irish and international. From the Archives section showcases original historical documents held in the Archives at UCD while the History and Policy section features historians' contribution to current policy debates.
Cultural heritage repositories at UCD hold unique resources that reflect the heritage and history of Ireland. UCD Digital Library provides access to resources from many UCD cultural repositories, including: UCD Library Special Collections; UCD Archives; the National Folklore Collection UCD; the UCD Irish Dialect Archive; map collections in the Schools of UCD School of Geological Sciences and Geography, Planning & Environmental Policy; the UCD School of Art History and Cultural Policy; the UCD Classical Museum; and more. Many collections in the Digital Library are also published to Europeana, the digital online gateway to European cultural heritage collections.
Academics and students from many different backgrounds and from many different countries come to utilise the unique archives and engage with the staff of the school. The school is custodians of manuscripts and papers dating from the eleventh to the twentieth centuries and teaches courses and supervises research theses on topics spanning two millennia and most parts of the globe.