Resource Library

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.

Videos

The Execution of Kevin Barry

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.

Mexican Revolution, National University & the formation of a revolutionary state

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.

Francis Ledwidge: War Poet

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.

The Destruction of Dublin, 1916, Dr Conor Mulvagh

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').

Acts and Arms the road to woodenbridge

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.

The Irish Revolution

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…

Eoin MacNeill

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.

Commemorating Clontarf – 1014 through the Ages

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…

A decade of Centenaries

Professor John Coakley, Emeritus Professor of Politics, UCD School of Politics and International Relations outlines the significance of the centenary celebrations for Ireland now.

A decade of Centenaries

Professor Diarmaid Ferriter, Professor of Modern Irish History, UCD School of History and Archives gives and overview of the period.

From Rising to Recession

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.

Podcasts

Public Policy and Mental Health in Independent Ireland (41)

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.

Patient Subjects, Medical Objects – Encounters in the Irish Mental Hospital 1900-58 (27)

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.

Irish Advanced Nationalism & Youth in the Early Twentieth Century

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.

‘All Changed, Changed Utterly’ – Easter 1916 and America

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’.

The Origins of the First World War

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.

Intra-Community Remembering and Forgetting – Commemorative Possessiveness and Envy in Ulster

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.

John Redmond’s Woodenbridge speech and the split in the Irish Volunteers

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.

The Third Home Rule Bill

Dr Conor Mulvagh, UCD School of History and Archives discusses the third home rule bill of 1912.

Why was there an Easter Rising?

Professor Michael Laffan, UCD School of History and Archives explores the national and international circumstances of Ireland before Easter Week, 1916

The Irish Revolution

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…

Archives

UCD Library Special Collections

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

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.

Dublin Town Planning Competition 1914

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.

Records of the UCD Literary and Historical Society February 27, 1915

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)

Minute book of the Belgian Refugees’ Committee

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.

Letter from John Redmond to Tom Kettle, 25 August 1914

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.

Mary Spring Rice letters to Michael Joseph (The) O’Rahilly, 1 and 9 May 1914

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.

Boehm/Casement Papers

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.

Desmond FitzGerald Photographs

A stunning collection of 179 images relating to the Irish Civil War, the aftermath of the Easter Rising and the War of Independence.