Newsletter Summer 2013
Newsletter Date
Newsletter Summer 2013
Inside this issue:
A word from the Chair 1
A Word from the Chair
DLM Forum Members 2
Meeting
Building and
3
Dear Members,
Operation of Antrim
Bridewell
Irish Architectural
7
Archive Temporary
Closure
RTÉ Document
7
Welcome to the Summer edition of the
ARA,I Newsletter. At last we have a proper
summer, and while you sit back and enjoy
the wonderful weather you can catch up
on archive news from around the country.
Archives
Medical Records
12
Training Day
Archive Service
14
Accreditation Scheme
A Treasure Trove of
16
Collections Available
Two New Publications 17
at Dublin City Library
& Archive
CLAA Conference in
18
In June there were two ARA,I events of
note. Caroline Williams, the President of
the ARA, was invited to Dublin by the
National Archives to give a presentation on
the new professional development scheme.
Caroline gave the presentation at two
sessions, which were open to all members
and were well attended. A lively and
interesting discussion on the merits of the
competency framework document and the
current registration system took place in
both sessions.
Dublin
The RTÉ Written
19
Archives at UCD (Part
3)
CALM implementation 20
project at NUIG
Archival Gems from
21
the Londonderry
Papers
Welcome to the 60s!
25
Annie Brophy
Sums and Blackshirts : 26
A training day on the subject of medical
records was held on the 13th June in the
National Museum. This was a joint event
with the Irish Records Management Society
and the Irish Society for Archives. The
speakers on the day covered a wide variety
of topics relating to medical records,
including their history, access issues in
archives and hospitals and modern records
management challenges. The day
concluded with the three associations
agreeing to form a working group to
investigate access conditions to medical
records and to compile recommendations
on this. Further discussion on the
formation of the working group took
place at our Business Meeting which
followed the event.
Coming up in September is a training day
on ‘Adapted Buildings’ to be held in the
Guinness Storehouse Archive. Our
training officer, Fergus Fahey will circulate
details of this event during August. The
autumn Business Meeting will follow the
training day.
The new campaign to promote archives,
Explore Your Archives, will be launched
by the region in November. This
campaign differs from the old Archive
Awareness campaign in that there is no
set time or topic for events. An archive
service can choose the collections they
want to promote in their holdings and
host an event at a time that suits them.
The National Archives and Public Record
Office of Northern Ireland are supporting
the campaign which hopefully will be very
successful.
Enjoy the rest of the summer and see you
at the Business Meeting in September.
Best wishes,
Hazel Menton
Chair, ARA, I
Newsletter Summer 2013
Page 2
The DLM Forum Members’ Meeting and Industry Conference,
Dublin, 25-26 June 2013
Amongst the final series of events taking place as part of
Ireland’s Presidency of the European Union, the last
week of June saw Dublin play host to three conferences
of interest and relevance to records professionals across
the continuum – the DLM Forum, ICARUS and APEx. This
offered a unique opportunity to participate, meet
colleagues from other institutions and organisations
across the EU, and to learn about new projects, research,
and initiatives.
The DLM Forum Meeting and Conference, hosted by the
National Archives of Ireland, took place over two days in
the historic surroundings of The Royal Hospital,
Kilmainham, Dublin under the theme of ‘Information
Governance across Europe’.
One of DLM’s unique features is the involvement of a
range of stakeholders engaging in dialogue about
shared challenges and solutions to managing and
preserving digital records. As a new member of DLM,
University College Dublin joins a lively mix of national
archival institutions, organisations and universities from
across Europe, as well as software vendors operating in
Europe.
Many of us are familiar with DLM’s most high profile
initiative, MoReq, an internationally recognised standard
in records management developed by the DLM Forum
with support from the European Commission. From its
very first release back in 2001, MoReq sat alongside
similar early initiatives that emanated from the
international recordkeeping community, each of which
aimed at outlining a level of records management
functionality seen by record professionals as being
essential to the successful creation, capture and
management of born digital records within electronic
records management systems. In reality, this meant that
organisations and records professionals possessed a
purchasing specification when making decisions in
relation to acquiring an electronic record keeping
system. Similar early initiatives included the UK National
Archives’ ‘Functional Requirements for Electronic
Records Management Systems’, 1999 and 2002 (no
longer developed), and the DoD5015.2 standard
developed in the United States.
Having passed through a further revision in 2008,
including the development of a testing and
certification scheme for record keeping systems,
the release of MoReq2010 in 2011 marked a stepchange in the specification and reflected broader
changes in the records management landscape.
As the professional and vendor community have
increasingly begun to question the viability of a
single, stand-alone ERMS where records must
actively be ‘placed’ in order to be captured and
managed, the concept of records ‘managed in situ’
has developed. At the heart of this model, is the
idea of specifying a basic level of core records
management functionality that could be built in to
any business system – not only one specifically
designated as an ERMS. For those requiring more
than basic functionality, a series of optional
additional plug-ins were also developed as part of
MoReq2010.
In recent years, DLM’s growing profile has been
seen by the fact that many software vendors have
become involved in the forum, indeed some are
currently undertaking the necessary steps to have
their specific product tested and certified as a
MoReq compliant system. This kind of dialogue
between records professionals and software
companies is undoubtedly an area where more
work needs to be done. However, it is an important
step towards developing realistic solutions that will
simultaneously meet the needs of seamless
business process and employee expectation within
organisations, the needs of records management
professionals to capture and maintain authentic
evidence of those business processes, and
ultimately, the needs of archivists in knowing that
those records (and their metadata) worthy of longterm preservation can ultimately be ingested into
digital archival repositories in years to come.
During the two days of the DLM Forum event in
Dublin, delegates heard from a diverse range of
speakers, from reports on the latest developments
in MoReq; U.S. software providers Gimmal talking
about their work on plug-in technologies for use
with Microsoft Sharepoint; to the recent work of
Newsletter Summer 2013
Page 3
the recent work of the National State Archives of
Greece in forging a role for itself in the management of
electronic records across the country’s public sector. Dr
Andrea Hänger offered a fascinating overview of plans
at the Bundesarchiv to develop a repository for semicurrent electronic records from the federal
administration in Germany.
Under this plan, the
records creators across federal agencies would only be
concerned with managing active records, with those in
a ‘semi-active’ stage (no longer actively used but still
needing to be retained) in future managed by the
archive. This shift, indeed extension, of the archive’s
role, marks a new departure for the Bundesarchiv and
underscores its role in working closely with federal
agencies in respect of records management. As Hänger
emphasised, the requirements for a semi-active
repository are quite different to those for long-term
archival storage, not least because federal agency
workers must be able to re-access the electronic record
for the duration of its remaining retention period, in
those instances where the record is needed again for
business purposes.
Themes which emerged across the two days included
the sheer scale of the tasks encompassed by the term
‘Information Governance’, and the varying definitions
attached to it. As Tom Reding, from U.S. software
company EMC noted, information and records
management is driven by the sheer quantity of data
being produced and stored around the globe, which
needs to be managed.
Moreover, the need for
information sharing, collaboration, agility and
productivity must be balanced alongside the need to
consistently apply and enforce policies - records and
the information they contain, whilst being amongst an
organisation’s greatest assets, can also become a risk
and liability, especially in cases where the information is
unknown, and therefore unmanaged. Other speakers
recognised that much of the focus on information
governance inevitably centres around achieving
legislative and regulatory compliance – this means
that regulators and auditors need assurance that the
information has probity – in other words, that the
information has evidential value. Therefore, as Jon
Garde, chair of the DLM Forum, emphasised,
thinking of the definition of a record as stated in ISO
1549, the good news is that whatever way we might
approach information governance, it becomes
apparent that information governance needs
records – information governance cannot exist
without records and records management.
A revised, fourth version of MoReq is due for release
later this summer, and the DLM Forum is continuing
with further developments including plans for a
guide on ‘How to develop a MoReq module’ which
would allow individuals to create their own plug-in
modules relating to a specific records management
requirement, as well as plans for closer integration
of MoReq with archival requirements, by building on
research in relation to the ingestion of electronic
records into archival systems.
The DLM Forum meeting and conference proved to
be both engaging and stimulating, and University
College Dublin looks forward to future involvement.
Dr Julie Brooks,
School of History and Archives,
University College Dublin
The Building and Operation of Antrim Bridewell:
The Crown and Peace Archive of County Antrim
During the nineteenth century, Bridewell’s were an
papers and correspondence and are the original
integral part of the penal system. The Public Record
documents dating from the 1850s - 1880s. These
Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) holds the archive
records reflect the legal procedures and difficulties
relating to the construction and use of the Bridewell in
involved in the construction of a new Bridewell. This
Antrim town (ANT/4/12). The archive comprises of
archive has recently been catalogued and provides a
approximately 160 documents including minutes, legal
new, interesting and invaluable resource for research
Newsletter Summer 2013
All records discussed below are open and available
to the public and may be viewed in PRONI.
A “Bridewell”?
“Bridewell” is a term for a prison/workhouse which
held petty criminals, paupers and debtors. The
Bridewell was generally close to or adjacent to the
Courthouse and were regarded as “holding cells” or
“place of detention” for the accused before they
went to trial at the Courthouse. There were of
course exceptions to this based on prisoner
capacity of the other local prisons.
The origins of the name “Bridewell” may be traced
back to Bridewell Palace in London, which was King
Henry VIII’s residence between 1515 and 1523.
Bridewell Palace took its name from the earlier Saint
Bride’s Inn that was built on the banks of the River
Fleet. St Bride’s Inn was named after a nearby
sacred well dedicated to the fifth century St Bride.
She was also known as St Brigid of Kildare or St
Brigit of Ireland; one of the patron saints of Ireland.
In 1553, King Edward VI granted a charter to the
City of London to allow the creation of a charitable
hospital that also housed homeless children and
disciplined disorderly paupers. In 1556, the City of
London took control of Bridewell Palace and
developed it into the hospital, workrooms and
prison.
Finding a Location for Antrim Bridewell
The Grand Jury of County Antrim, which was
regarded as the County’s local government
requested a Bridewell be built in the town of
Antrim. This request was sent to Dublin Castle,
which was at the time the seat of Government.
When the request was granted, the Grand Jury
organised a Commission to oversee the building of
the Antrim Bridewell.
ANT/4/12/4/2 is the Correspondence Book of the
Commissioners of Antrim Bridewell (1852-1856).
The correspondence book also contains a
duplicated set of accounts for the financial year,
1854. The book contains transcripts of letters sent
and received for example, on pages 7 and 8 there is
a transcript of a letter from the architect, Charles
Page 4
Lanyon (no date is entered however it is
considered, ca. September-October 1852).
Charles Lanyon recommends to one of the
Commissioners, John Coates (also Secretary to
the Grand Jury) regarding the purchase of a site
“that if you can proceed under the new act – to
do so…..” (page 8).
The ‘new act’ that Charles Lanyon refers to is the
Encumbered Estate Acts of 1848 and 1849.
These Acts allowed the Estates Court to sell the
estates of owners who were unable to meet
their financial obligations (predominantly due to
the Great Famine) and subsequently defaulted
on payment and left their estates.
ANT/4/12/1/1 is the Proceedings Book of the
Commissioners of Antrim Bridewell (1852-1856).
This volume holds minutes of the meetings
including attendance, appointments and topics
discussed for example, the location of the
premises and costs involved. At the
Commissioners meeting dated January 22nd
1853, “Mr Clark reported that Mr Finlay had
been applied to inspecting the ground on the
south west side of the Antrim Courthouse and
that he proposed to let the Commission have it
for £300” (page 4).
On pages 14 & 15 of the Proceedings Book
(ANT/4/12/1/1) at the meeting dated July 22nd
1853, the Commissioners “having carefully
considered and compared the relative
advantages of both premises at their option,
unanimously resolved in adopting those on the
southern side of the Court House” (page 14).
However, they were “resolved to apply to the
next Presentment Sessions for a presentment for
an additional sum of £350” (page 15).
ANT/4/12/4/1 is a bundle of ca. 103 letters of
the Commission (1852-1856). The bundle
consists of working correspondence regarding
the planning and building of the Bridewell
including the Bridewell building plans for
example, the letter dated 20th June 1853
between Commissioners George Clarke and
John Coates, John Coates writes “I did see Mr
Newsletter Summer 2013
Lanyon on Monday after his arrival from London and
several times since, but he has not been able to give
me any decided answer about the plans and I fear he
has no hopes of being able to have us in such a state
of forwardness as to get the contracts entered into
before the Assizes” (page 1; Plate 1).
Page 5
was appointed and a contract entered into,
building plans were considered. ANT/4/12/7/1 is
a hand drawn, coloured sketch of the first
proposed site of Antrim Bridewell (ca. 18531854). This plan however, was not adopted.
Hand drawn, coloured sketch of the first proposed site
of Antrim Bridewell (ANT/4/7/12/1)
Letter (page 1) between Commissioners regarding the building
plans (ANT/4/12/4/1)
As the building plans progressed,
correspondence regarding financial matters
amassed. Examples of these are held in
ANT/4/12/5/3/1/1. This is a bundle of 15
financial documents including accounts,
vouchers and estimates (1854-1856). For
example, a gas pipe and fittings quote from John
Hamilton dated 16th December 1856.
Planning and Building Antrim Bridewell
After the location was decided upon; the southern side
of the Antrim Court House, the Bridewell had to then
be built. The Commission invited builders to tender by
Friday 10th March 1854. ANT/4/12/5/2/1 is a bundle
of ca. 25 letters of the Commission (1851-1854)
containing the working correspondence of planning
and building the Bridewell. For example, a schedule of
prices (24th August 1853) from William Vance for the
building of the Bridewell that gives a description of the
material, quantity required and cost and the binding
agreement between the builder, William Vance and
the Commission to undertake the building of the
Bridewell (18th March 1854).
ANT/4/12/2/1 and ANT4/12/2/2 are the Articles of
Agreement and Articles of Recognizance respectively
between the Commission and William Vance, the
builder. These original large, parchment documents
are both dated 24th August 1853 and still have their
original wax seals and signatures. After William Vance
Letter from John Hamilton regarding gas pipe fitting
(ANT/4/12/5/3/1/1)
Newsletter Summer 2013
Planning
and
Building
Difficulties Encountered
Page 6
Antrim
Bridewell:
As with many building projects various difficulties
were encountered. Contained in the Correspondence
Book of the Commissioners of Antrim Bridewell
(ANT/4/12/4/2) is a transcript of a letter dated 2nd
December 1853 from John Coates, Secretary to the
Grand Jury to John Finlay (land owner of the site)
stating “that the contractor for building the Bridewell
at Antrim complains that the materials of the
buildings on the site purchased from you by the
Commissioners are being carried away and that very
recently a quantity of timber out of the roofs of the
houses were pulled down and sold to parties by Mr
Mackay”
The Commissioners it appears had difficulties with the
builder, William Vance. ANT/4/12/6/1 is a legal case
document against William Vance brought to court on
behalf of the Commission (1853-1853). This action
was undertaken as it was alleged William Vance
withdrew from the contract to build the Bridewell.
There are also handwritten, additional pages from
Henry H. Joy, which detail the legalities of and
potential solution to the issue (8th December 1853).
ANT/4/12/6/2 is a copy case on behalf of William
Vance with the opinion of Counsel included (18531853). The opinion of the counsel was that as Dublin
Castle had not forwarded any money (blaming
“official delays”; page 1) to the Grand Jury then the
Grand Jury could not buy the land from the land
owner (John Finlay) and William Vance could not start
building. The delay in building meant the estimated
costs for materials became obsolete as material prices
rose over the summer and this rendered the original
tender to the Commission inaccurate.
The opinion of the Counsel was to recommend the
Commission extend the time to William Vance for
building the Bridewell “in the hope that the materials
may fall again in price but which is not expected till
after next summer when the supply of memel timber
will arrive” (page 3). (Memel was an East Prussian city
in the 1850s that exported timber; it is now known as
Klaipėda, in Lithuania.)
Antrim Bridewell in Operation
When the Bridewell came into use in the late 1850’s, it
began incurring operational costs such as meals
supplied to prisoners, candles, soap and straw. These
expenses had to be accounted for to Dublin Castle
and were done so through Quarterly Return
Expense Sheets including receipts for goods; these
are held under ANT/4/12/5/3/2/1-2. Similar to the
financial expense, the Keeper of the Antrim
Bridewell was responsible for recording all
prisoners who were confined in the Bridewell for
one night or more. This information was recorded
on Quarterly Return of Prisoners Sheets and sent
to
Dublin
Castle
every
three
months
(ANT/4/12/3/1-4).
Quarterly Return of Prisoners Sheets, page 2, 31st
December 1862 (ANT/4/12/3/2)
The information contained included the prisoners
name and Bridewell number, the crime committed,
whether they lodged in or were removed from the
Bridewell and costs incurred. The Quarterly Return
of Prisoners Sheets are regarded as a unique
genealogical resource for the north of Ireland in
the absence of other Crown and Peace records
from this time period.
The Antrim Bridewell archive (ANT/4/12/1-7) is
supported by other County Antrim Crown and
Peace archives held in PRONI. These are the
Carrickfergus gaol archive (ANT/4/10) and the
Belfast Bridewell archive (ANT/4/11). These
archives similar to the Antrim Bridewell records are
all open and available to the public and may be
viewed in PRONI.
Alan W Robertson
Public Record Office of Northern
Ireland
Newsletter Summer 2013
Page 7
Irish Architectural Archive Temporary Closure
On foot of cutbacks in core grants and the sustained
Michael Webb, Chairman of the Archive, noted;
downturn in its traditional private-sector support
‘The response from the Archive board, members,
base – architecture and construction – the Irish
staff and friends has been very encouraging and
Architectural Archive has been experiencing very
we are extremely grateful to all those individuals
serious financial difficulties since mid-2012. Having
and organisations who have contributed.’
ended last year with a €30,000 deficit, and facing the
prospect of a cumulative deficit of over €100,000 by
the end of 2013, the board has been forced to close
the Archive for July and August 2013 as a cost saving
measure to avoid insolvency, making all staff
temporarily redundant.
The Chairman and other Archive representatives
met Jimmy Deenihan TD, Minister for Arts,
Heritage and the Gaeltacht, and have entered
into
meaningful
engagement
with
his
Department on a restructuring programme to
secure the future of the Archive.
For these two months, it will not be possible to
provide public access to the building or the
collections, or to respond to phone, email or postal
enquiries, or any other correspondence. The board
The
Archive
Reading
Room,
Architecture
Gallery and office will close at 5 pm on Friday
deeply regrets the inconvenience this closure will
28 June 2013.
cause, and the impact on its staff.
The Archive office will reopen on Monday 2
September.
In order to minimise the duration of the closure, the
Archive has intensified its fundraising efforts. Since
The Archive Reading Room and Architecture
Gallery will reopen at 10 am on Tuesday 3
February 2013 nearly 80 individuals and companies
September 2013.
have paid or pledged over €44,000. This money will
For updates on this situation please refer to the
be used to confine the proposed closure to just two
Archive’s website www.iarc.ie
months instead of longer.
The RTÉ Document Archives
An Introduction to the RTÉ Document Archives
Brid Dooley, Head of RTÉ Archives
The RTÉ Document Archives chart the written
history of RTÉ from its origins as the radio station
2RN in the 1920’s to date. The records contain a
wealth of information on programme making,
historical events, social history and company
RTÉ Archives are responsible for collecting, preserving
organisation. Corporate collections chart the
and making accessible the creative and documentary
development of the national broadcaster and the
output of RTÉ across its Radio, Television and
main social and political events which it reflected.
Corporate units. There are four distinct collections,
incorporated in the RTÉ Archives; Moving Image,
Audio, Image (photographic) and Documents.
The collections held in the Document Archives
Newsletter Summer 2013
complement and supplement the RTÉ audio visual
archives and are of intrinsic significance as a
corporate utility, as a resource for the curation and
publication of RTÉ Archives, for programme makers
and researchers and as an historical and cultural
reference for the wider community.
The importance of the Document Archives is really
their scope;
we hold everything from documents
Page 8
Developing the RTÉ Document Archives
Tina Byrne, Senior Archivist
A plan of action for RTÉ Written Archives was
established in 2008 led by Archivist Tina Byrne.
Storage areas were surveyed and rationalised and
an integrated preservation plan devised.
A
designated archival processing room was fitted out
setting up 2RN in 1926 to programme files, financial
and
records,
arranged and box listed including; The Late Late
reports, correspondence, music scores,
scripts, proposals, policy planning and staff records.
Records are in hardcopy, electronic and digital
formats.
collections
of
key
legacy
programmes
Show, The Riordans, Tolka Row and the 1960’s
Drama Collection. Work is ongoing on processing
the largest legacy collection of Radio Éireann
We also hold a large collection of secondary sources
relating to the history of broadcasting in Ireland,
material.
Digitisation
of
key
documents
for
preservation and access purposes has been
including the “RTÉ Guide Collection”, annual reports,
successfully implemented with further projects are
publications and assorted grey literature.
to follow as resources allow.
Our holdings are an eclectic mix of programme files,
paper and electronic documents and records. We
RTÉ is one of the oldest continuously operating
have devised best practice policies and procedures for
public service broadcasters in the world. The radio
Accessioning, Cataloguing, Records Management and
service commenced on 1 January 1926 and
User Services.
Work continues on accessioning
documents & records from internal departments and
listing legacy collections. Plans are ongoing to expand
and enhance online access to RTÉ archival collections
and to develop access for post-graduate level
historical research and study.
In this regard we have established partnerships with
other institutions such as the Digital Repository of
Ireland and UCD Archives Department and it is hoped
that in the future we can engage in further
collaborative projects with third party institutions.
Visit our website at www.rte.ie/archive
television broadcasts began on 31 December 1961.
Radio Days
Newsletter Summer 2013
Early
radio
content
Page 9
featured
very
few
speech
Operations were also restricted by difficulties in
programmes with an emphasis on music played live
obtaining the necessary parts to keep transmitters
often by solo performers.
running.
Tape recording was introduced in Radio Éireann at
the end of 1949.This heralded the end of an era for
live broadcasting. Acetate discs had limitations.
They were complex to make, easily damaged,
difficult to store and programmes had to be
recorded
in
"one
go".
The
link
between
performance and studio transmission was broken.
A performance could now be recorded at a
manageable time for the artists. Far better use
could be made of studio time all day. And,
although costly, the tapes could be re-used and
Handwritten graph showing the increase in Wireless Licences
the sound quality was excellent. For the first time,
from 1925-1927. From the “Radio Éireann” collection.
programme material could be manipulated by
editing.
Sponsored programmes were the popular medium for
advertising in the early days of radio broadcasting.
Advertising became increasingly important to cover
the cost of the Athlone transmitter.
The first sponsored programme, featuring Euthymol
toothpaste, was broadcast on 31 December 1927.
Through the 1930s and 1940’s many companies
sponsored radio programmes including Independent
Newspapers, PJ Carroll tobacco company and The Irish
Hospitals' Sweepstakes.
The Second World War was a testing time for Radio
Éireann. Censorship was rigorously enforced over all
the Irish media between 1939 and 1945 and as a state
run service and accessible overseas, Radio Éireann
Image from the “Radio Éireann Annual Report” 1946
showing the figures in minutes broadcast under different
programme classifications
Further
developments
in
Radio
Éireann
programming in the 1950’s saw a greater emphasis
broadcasts received particularly close attention.
on variety. The station's first soap opera 'The
War reporting was censored because of the policy of
from 1955 to 1973. The 'Thomas Davis Lectures'
neutrality and news bulletin scripts were read over the
series was launched in September 1953 with the
phone to the Head of the Government Information
aim of introducing the listening public to the best
Bureau. Furthermore, there was a prohibition on
in Irish scholarship. The title was named after the
broadcasting weather forecasts, which were regarded
19th century Protestant leader of the nationalist
as strategically important. Apart from the ongoing
movement, ‘Young Ireland’, whose precept was
annoyance for farmers and fishermen, this policy
"educate that you may be free".
meant, for example, that a sports commentator would
have to omit an innocent phrase such as "it's a lovely
day here today in Dublin for the football final".
Kennedys of Castleross' was broadcast and ran
These lectures quickly became one of Raidio
Newsletter Summer 2013
Éireann's most important programme features and
have been published in book form. The Document
Archives holds a complete collection of the published
lectures.
Radio drama and radio talks output grew in the
1950’s and 1960’s and proved to be immensely
popular with the listening public.
Page 10
Beginning of Television
The 1960s saw the arrival of an Irish television
service Telefís Éireann to accompany Radio Éireann.
Television began broadcasting on New Year's Eve
1961 and in 1966 both services were combined
under the name RTÉ (Radio Telefís Éireann).
The output of the new television station included a
broad range of factual and entertainment
programmes including news and current affairs
programmes “7 Days” and “Radharc” and Ireland’s
first “soaps” “Tolka Row” and “The Riordans”.
Some advice for aspiring radio contributors from the writer
Mervyn Wall. From the “Radio Éireann Yearbook”1950.
'Telefís Feirme’ is an example of one of the
innovative programmes established by the new
television station. An agricultural education series,
it began broadcasting on 12 October 1965. The first
series offered 48 weekly programmes on farm
education. At a time when not every home had a
television set, the Department of Agriculture
subsidised the rental of sets so that members of
agricultural organisations could come together to
watch and discuss the programmes.
RTÉ Document Archives hold thousands of radio
drama scripts. In 2011 a collaborative project between
RTÉ Archives and UCD Archives Department listed
7,000 Drama Scripts from the Radio Éireann
Collection. Copies will be available for research in
both institutions.
Extract from the booklet “High Quality Milk” that
accompanied the television series “Telefís Feirme” 1965.
From the “Radio Éireann” collection.
The Growth of Television
Excerpt from the handwritten script of 'An Cnota Glas,' a
radio adaptation of the novel 'The Green Cockade, a Tale of
Ulster in '98' by Margaret T. Pender. 1962. From the “Radio
Éireann” collection
The world’s longest running chat show the “Late
Late Show” began in 1962 and is still running today.
The show became an important forum for the
Newsletter Summer 2013
Page 11
airing and debating of many issues in a changing Irish
complex politics of Northern Ireland.
society.
The document example below from the archives is
from 1994 when the Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams
was interviewed on 'The Late Late Show' while in
Dublin
to
attend
the
Forum
on
Peace
and
Reconciliation. It was his first appearance on the
programme and followed the lifting of the Section 31
ban earlier that year. Much comment was made
afterwards of the presenter Gay Byrne not shaking
Gerry Adams's hand.
A handwritten news report by Gary Honeyford for RTÉ
Belfast about the killing of RUC officer Martin Vance in
1985. From the RTÉ “News” collection.
The Document Archives hold a large collection of
Extract from a cue card and interview notes for Late Late
news and current affairs programme files which
Show presenter Gay Byrne, 1994. From the “Late Late Show”
include an extensive “Elections” collection, covering
collection.
all national and European parliamentary elections
During the 1970s RTÉ would launch two new radio
and referenda since the 1960’s.
stations Raidió na Gaeltachta , which later changed its
name to TG4, Radio 2 and a second television channel
RTÉ
2.
Technological
developments
saw
the
introduction of FM and stereo services in radio and
the advent of colour television.
The big home produced television drama of the
1980’s was 'Strumpet City' while on radio an unedited
and uninterrupted reading of James Joyce's 'Ulysses'
was broadcast over 30 hours in 1982.
Work is ongoing on the “Strumpet City” collection
which includes a complete set of programme scripts
and ancillary documents.
RTÉ news and current affairs covered the increasingly
RTÉ News and current affairs programmes were
streamed live on the web from 17th March 2007
and the current affairs programme “Questions and
Answers” came to an end after 23 years.
In May 2011 RTÉ gave extensive coverage to the
state visits of US President Obama and HRH Queen
Elizabeth.
RTÉ’s online services began in the 1990’s and
extended RTÉ’s content to new devices and
platforms. Analogue transmission was switched off
across Europe towards the end of 2012 and RTÉ
switched to a digital television signal.
Newsletter Summer 2013
Page 12
RTÉ’s ambition is to continue to open up the RTÉ
Archives to as broad a public in as many different
ways as possible. To this end the RTÉ Document
Archives will continue to accession, process and make
available our extensive and unique holdings.
Extract from the Book of Condolence for the RTÉ broadcaster
Gerry Ryan, who died in 2010. From the “Gerry Ryan Show”
collection.
Our
legacy
document
collections
have
broad
potential for use by the research community. They
have been used extensively by broadcast historian
Contact:
RTÉ Document Archives
RTÉ Digital
Donnybrook
John Bowman in his 2011 publication “Window and
Dublin 4
Mirror – RTÉ Television 1961-2011”. The Document
Email [email protected]
Archives are open to researchers by application in
accordance with our access and user policies.
Tel
(01) 208 4536
Medical Records Training Day
The Archives and Records Association, Ireland, the
range of speakers and topics covered during what
Information and Records Management Society and
was a very informative session.
the Irish Society for Archives jointly held a training
day on medical records at the National Museum,
Collins Barracks on Thursday the 13th of June 2013.
The title of the day ‘Medical Records: Content,
Management, Access and Use’ reflected the broad
Archivist Brian Donnelly of the National Archives
opened proceedings with a very interesting paper
entitled
‘The
Irish
hospital
system
and
the
Newsletter Summer 2013
Page 13
preservation of records, the historical context’, which
Ireland compared to the U.K., where she has
provided a detailed overview of the lack of a
undertaken
coordinated
approach
the
committed to asylums in Lancashire. She found the
consequent
failure
valuable
Lancashire archives were very welcoming of her
collections for historical research. He described many
research and provided unrestricted access to
of the collections held by the National Archives and
records over 100 years old. Records less than 100
to
to
the
capture
area
many
and
the procedures involved in accessing collections,
many of which contain very sensitive personal
information. The Rotunda Hospital records are held
by the National Archives but access to the records is
controlled directly by the Freedom of Information
Unit in the hospital. Researchers must seek approval
from the hospital before access to the records can be
research
on
Irish
immigrants
years old deemed necessary to provide historical
context were released following consultation with
the archive service and assurances that such
privileges would not be abused. She called on
archivists and historians to work together to rectify
the
situation
to
provide
mutually
beneficial
clarification.
facilitated by the National Archives in its reading
room. The collection itself is very intact and its future
secure. The same cannot be said for many other
collections which have been destroyed prior to
capture. Brian described the process involved in
rescuing the Grangegorman Hospital records from
such a fate and the successful application to the
Wellcome Institute for funding for a two year
cataloguing and conservation project. The work,
which commenced a year ago, is carried out by an
archivist, a project assistant, a conservator and an
archive assistant.
The seminar was well attended by members of the
HSE. Gay Murphy, from the National Programme
for Healthcare Records at the HSE, provided an
overview
of
the
problems
associated
with
managing access to current medical records across
multiple
sites
and
disciplines.
The
HSE
is
responsible for records generated in all public
hospitals. Records must be accessible to facilitate
medical care, often at short notice and outside of
regular office hours. This can cause problems for
records managers who must facilitate medical staff
while maintaining patient confidentiality in what
Medical historian Dr. Catherine Cox of UCD described
the problems associated with the lack of a consistent
policy toward access to medical records, particularly
non-current records. She described how research into
the whole area of medical history has been hampered
by the refusal to allow access to records more than
100 years old. She also described the use of
anonymisation in her work and the pros and cons of
such an approach. On the whole, historians do not
have a problem with anonymisation if it enables them
to gain access to records, but such a policy must be
consistent. She gave an example of a situation where
she had agreed to anonymise a patient from a
are often stressful situations, or situations in which
medical staff are unaware of their obligations
toward proper records management. The HSE is
currently implementing an agency-wide electronic
records management system. It is hoped that such
a system will limit the potential for inappropriate
access and will encourage greater understanding
of the issue among non-records professionals. The
presentation was followed by a discussion of the
current state of progress of the project, data
protection issues faced by staff working within the
HSE and the need to protect patient confidentiality
at all times.
particular lunatic asylum but the details of the
committal
were
contemporaneous
publicly
newspaper
available
reports.
She
in
also
described the inconsistencies in access policies in
Following a break for lunch, Fergus Brady of the
National
Archives
presented
his
paper
‘Confidentiality of health care records in four Irish
Newsletter Summer 2013
Page 14
public hospitals’, which was based on his thesis for
his M.A. in Archives and Records Management.
Fergus interviewed four
ascertain
the
actual
records managers to
situation
for
records
professionals working in public hospitals. As part of
his permission to undertake the research, Fergus
Pat Reidy, Managing Director of Xyea, gave a
presentation on ‘Minimising risk in medical records
in the Irish context’. He provided an overview of his
business and the niche he has found in the
development of software for compliance and risk
management and gave a demonstration of how
the software works.
had to anonymise the individuals and the name of
the hospitals. This may have worked in his favour,
however, as it allowed the individuals concerned to
provide a rare insight into the challenges faced by
those tasked with providing efficient and secure
access to current records, while maintaining patient
confidentiality, in an atmosphere of major budgetary
restrictions and often a lack of interest, or
understanding,
of
the
challenges
by
senior
management.
Dr. Kirsten Mulrennan, the first person to graduate
with a Doctorate in Archivistics from UCD, gave an
Proceedings were concluded by Gregory O’Connor
of the National Archives, who summed up the
day’s presentations and concluded with his own
views on the issue of access to medical records in
Ireland. On behalf of the ISA, Gregory called for
the formation of a working group to investigate
further the issues surrounding the problems of
preserving and providing access to medical
records. It was agreed by the ISA, ARAI and IRMS
that such a working group would be established
between the three associations. It was further
agreed that a letter would be sent by the ISA,
ARAI and IRMS to the Minister for Health and
Children regarding these issues.
overview of her PhD dissertation on the ‘Issues in
Archiving historic medical records in Ireland’, which
discussed how medical records should be archived.
The seminar was followed by the ARAI summer
business meeting.
As part of her project, Kirsten was granted access to
the uncatalogued records of Grangegorman prior to
their
transfer
to
the
National
Archives
Niamh McDonnell
for
National Archives
cataloguing and conservation. She provided an
overview of her findings, including the all-too
familiar issue of adequate funding to ensure proper
support and access.
Archive Service Accreditation scheme:
publishing the new Standard and guidance
The UK Archive Service Accreditation partners are
extremely
pleased
to
introduce
the
new
Accreditation Standard and its supporting guidance,
which is now available on The National Archives
website.
[http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
archives-sector/archive-service-accreditation.htm].
This is a key milestone in launching Archive Service
Accreditation after months of development and
piloting across the UK archives sector. Most
recently, 20 archive services of different sizes and
types have tested the Standard and the
application process. This led directly to changes in
the documentation now available.
The Standard and its supporting guidance are
designed to steer decision making for archive
services of all types across the UK. The Standard
Newsletter Summer 2013
Page 15
covers the three key areas of offering an effective
Secondly, we need a mechanism for applicants to
service:
apply. An online application system is in the last
Organisational
Management,
and
Health,
Stakeholders
Collections
and
their
stages of building and will be soft launched over
Experiences.
the summer.
Archive Service Accreditation uses the principle of
And thirdly, the home nations assessor bodies are
scalability to ensure that its headline requirements
working to schedule applications in their areas.
translate into realistic, helpful expectations of
None of us has infinite resource, and we also want
different types and sizes of archive service. We hope
to make sure that archive services apply at a time
that
that works for them.
many
services
will
opt
to
go
through
assessment, but archive services not currently in a
position to do this will still find much of use among
the guidance.
The future of the scheme
It’s important to stress from the outset that the
Partner bodies representing each of the four home
nations will conduct assessments and support
services through the application process. Archive
Service Accreditation is supported by a partnership
of strategic and professional bodies across the UK:
Archives and Records Association, Archives and
Records Council Wales, Arts Council England,
National Records of Scotland, Public Record Office
scheme will continue to develop. The Committee
will review the guidance annually, and all elements
of the scheme and Standard will be reviewed
periodically to ensure they remain relevant and
useful. We are also committed to extending the
scheme
to
digital-only
repositories
in
the
foreseeable future, once the standards are in place
to work with.
of Northern Ireland, Scottish Council on Archives,
The National Archives, and the Welsh Government
Lastly, as ARA Ireland members will be keenly
through CyMAL: Museums Libraries and Archives
aware, at present this is a UK-only scheme. Each of
Wales.
the UK home nations is supported by at least one
assessor body, taking the lead in scheduling and
What happens next?
assessing applications from that home nation.
Much of the supporting training is also undertaken
Three key pieces of work are in progress to develop
at home nations level. Once the scheme is up and
the scheme to delivery.
running smoothly, there could be scope to discuss
opening up the partnership if an Irish partner felt
Firstly, we are recruiting the governing committee
which will take the scheme forward. The committee
able to join and provide the essential assessor
capacity.
comprises nominees of the accreditation partners
plus openly recruited members. Their expertise will
ensure that the live scheme has both strong support
Melinda Haunton
and effective challenge. Members of the committee
Programme Manager (Accreditation)
will form the smaller panels which meet regularly to
The National Archives (UK)
make awards of accredited status, ensuring that the
whole sector is represented in the scheme.
Newsletter Summer 2013
Page 16
A Treasure Trove of Collections Available On-Line
The private collections are comprised of a beautiful
and very popular eighteenth century survey of the
Estates of St George of Headford, the papers of the
Lawrence family of Lawrencetown, and also the
papers of Tomás Báiread, a journalist and Irish
language writer from Moycullen.
All collections are little gems and should be of
value in particular to social and local historians.
They are also useful educational tools as they
could be used as classroom aids to illustrate
Galway County Council Archives has digitized some
primary sources and assist with the teaching of
of its archive collections and made them available
history.
online. A diverse range of material is now
accessible to researchers to explore some of
Galway’s rich archival heritage in the comfort of
their own homes.
Digitisation enables us to do two very important
things, firstly, and most importantly, to preserve
our unique archival collections by making a digital
copy, and secondly to provide improved access to
content online to a global audience. In the coming
Each collection is prefixed with a descriptive list, or
other finding aid, describing its provenance and
content. Copyright of all the material remains with
Galway County Council. The online collections are
available on Galway County Council’s web-site at
http://www.galway.ie/en/Services/ArchivesService/
OurDigitalArchive/ . Further details on the archives
holdings are available on its online catalogue
available at http://www.galway.ie/en/Services/
ArchivesService/
years Galway County Council Archives will make
more and more of its important collections
available in this way, to be used and enjoyed by all.
Currently a selection, just a small but varied
quantity, of the Archives’ collections is accessible
on its website. Among the collections available are
public administration records and also private
collections. They include an extensive collection of
Board of Guardian minutes for the Clifden Poor
Law Union, dating from 1849-1921, covering part
of the famine period and also charting social
Image of Galway Infirmary circa 1812 (site of Arás na
conditions in the Clifden area from then until 1921,
Chontae) from GS01/2, James Hardiman, volume of
nineteenth century Galway Infirmary Governors’
drawings
minutes and colour drawings of Galway Gaol, and
also minutes of Loughrea Town Commissioners
from 1909 to 2006. Also of particular interest to
Patria McWalter
family historians are likely to be the burial ground
Archivist
registers for Tuam dating from 1882 to 1920.
Galway City Council
Newsletter Summer 2013
Page 17
Two New Publications at Dublin City Library & Archive
Councillor Naoise O Muiri, Lord Mayor of Dublin, with ‘Leaders of the City’ publication
Dublin City Library & Archive has recently issued
Cowan, John Cunningham, Francis Devine, David
two publications which relate to the Decade of
Durnin, Karen Hunt, Leeann Lane, Enda Leaney, Ann
Commemorations. One marks the centenary of the
Matthews, Thomas J. Morrissey, John Newsinger,
1913 Lockout and the other is a book of essays on
Séamas Ó Maitiú, Niamh Puirséil, Ciarán Wallace,
Dublin's Lord Mayors, many of whom were involved
Colin Whitston.
behind the scenes in the 1916 Rising or other
events of that tumultuous decade.
Title:
Leaders of the City: Dublin’s first citizens
1500-1950
Title:
A Capital in conflict, Dublin City and the
1913 Lockout
Editors: Ruth McManus and Lisa-Marie Griffith
ISBN:
Editor: Francis Devine
Hbk 978-1-84682-347-3
Pages: 224pp
Series Editors: Dr. Mary Clark and Dr. Máire
Published by: Four Courts Press
Kennedy
ISBN:
Hbk 978-107002-11-3
About: The lord mayor is the first citizen of Dublin
Pbk 978-1907002-10-6
city and chairperson of the elected council. The
Pages: xxxi, 405pp.
office of mayor, created in 1229 and restyled lord
Published by: Dublin
City
Council,
2013
mayor in 1665, has been held by diverse individuals
who have left their mark on the city in sometimes
About: A capital in conflict explores aspects of the
surprising ways.
social, political and cultural life of Dublin at a
liberty and civic politics, religion and the urban
defining point in Irish history during the 1913
environment, this book profiles some of the best-
Lockout. Certain personalities loom large such as
known figures to have held the office – including the
James Larkin and William Martin Murphy, Delia
first Lord Mayor Sir Daniel Bellingham, Daniel
Larkin and James Connolly, Charles Cameron and
O’Connell, J.P. Nannetti, Lorcan Sherlock, Kathleen
Hugh Lane, but it is the ordinary people of the city,
Clarke (first woman Lord Mayor of Dublin) and Alfie
the children, women and men, who shine through
Byrne.
the pages of this volume.
carried out at Dublin City Library & Archive.
Contributors: Lydia Carroll, Patrick Coughlan,
,
Covering themes such as civil
The volume is based largely on research
Newsletter Summer 2013
Contributors:
Page 18
Dr Mary Clark
Lydia Carroll, Mary Clark, Raymond
Gillespie, Lisa-Marie Griffith, Jacqueline Hill, Maire
Kennedy, Colm Lennon, Helen Litton, David McEllin,
Dublin City Library & Archive
Ruth McManus, Janet Redmond, Patricia Stapleton,
Ciaran Wallace.
CLAA Conference in Dublin
Delegates being given a tour of the Christ Church Cathedral Treasury
From 19 to 21 June the Cathedral Libraries and
Among the participants were delegates from the
Archives Association held its conference in Christ
National Archives in Kew, Lambeth Palace Library,
Church cathedral, Dublin. The CLAA, which is the
Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s cathedral,
principal forum for Anglican cathedral archivists and
London and the cathedrals of Canterbury, Exeter,
librarians in Great Britain and Ireland, holds a one day
Liverpool, Norwich and Worcester.
meeting each year and every three years has a three
day conference. The meetings are usually hosted by
one of the Anglican cathedrals in Great Britain and this
was the first occasion on which the Association met in
Ireland.
While some Irish cathedrals still hold their own
records, the majority have transferred them to the
Representative
Church
Body
Library
which
currently holds the records from twenty cathedrals.
Of these, the most significant are the collections of
Christ Church cathedral and St Patrick’s cathedral,
The theme of the conference was ‘The Cathedral as
Cultural Focus in a Metropolitan Setting’, and among
the speakers were Dr Kenneth Milne (former Chairman
of the Irish Society for Archives), Dr Mary Clark (Dublin
City Archivist) and Dr Raymond Refaussé ( Librarian &
Archivist of the Church of Ireland).
Dublin, St Canice’s cathedral, Kilkenny, and St Fin
Barre’s cathedral, Cork.
Raymond Refaussé
Representative Church Body Library,
Dublin
Newsletter Summer 2013
Page 19
The RTÉ Written Archives at UCD
(Part 3)
Many of the features belonged to the series
“Treasure House” (1970s-1980s), with titles such as
Eistenstein: Giant of the Soviet cinema, James
Boswell, Biographer, and The Amazing Alphabet of
Louis Braille. These features, and the many
dramatisations of classics, often seemed to be
aimed at both young and old audiences, and in
the end no classification was attempted:
arrangement is alphabetical within the drama and
the variety sections.
In 2010, RTÉ and UCD entered a partnership that saw
to the safe deposit and listing of the RTÉ written radio
archives. (See Newsletters Autumn 2011 and Winter
2012, online version.) The project has now been
completed with the listing of the largest of the three
collections.
This was the collection of RTÉ Drama and Variety,
which runs to nearly 4,500 items in over 420 boxes.
Unlike the radio talks, drama had not been split
according to language and the resulting list is bilingual
(c.10% are in Irish). Drama and variety programmes
during the period in question (1930s to 1990s) were
made by the Productions Department (later RTÉ Radio
Drama) and include circa 60% of original radio plays.
The rest is made up of drama adapted from theatre
plays and prose, and of features (short dramatic
documentaries with a strong educational agenda). The
amount of correspondence with individuals is very
small (e.g. with Teresa Deevy, Brian O'Nolan, Cyril
Cusack), but there is some more with collaborators and
listeners in the variety section.
At 1,650 authors, this was bulk-listing, with no spare
time for finding the date of the first broadcast for the
many undated plays (c.90%). At the same time, the
availability of newspaper listings online was
indispensible for putting names on the c.15% of
“unidentified” scripts. The earliest script is that of a
nativity play by Gabriel Fallon, And the Light Shineth in
Darkness (broadcast 25 December 1931); among the
newest scripts are 265 instalments of the long-running
weekly mid-day soap Konvenience Korner by Lee
Dunne (1996-98)!
UCD kept more than one script of a play only in
cases where there were an author's copy and an
RTÉ faircopy (see picture). Duplicates are kept by
RTÉ, but triplicates and further copies were
deaccessioned after first noting the actor's name
on the cover page: an appendix to the archival list
names members of the Radio Éireann/ RTÉ Players
(REP) taken from the scripts.
UCDA/P261/3774 Translator's script and
Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, January 1956.
faircopy:
Newsletter Summer 2013
Page 20
However, variety programmes such as Glad to Meet
You (1957), Potter Time (1958), Take to the Floor (1962),
did what variety on stage used to do – minus the
slapstick – providing comical sketches and musical
interludes. The genre as a whole disappeared from
RTÉ programme-making in the late 1970s when TV had
superseded them: a series of radio pantomimes by
Fergus Linehan and Frank Sheerin (starring Rosaleen
Lenihan, Des Keogh and others) such as Aladdin and
His Wond-Earful Lamp (1977) are among the last of the
genre.
Digitisation of the last collections is now in
process, and the scripts will be available for
consultation from early 2014.
Vera Orschel
(until May 2013: RTÉ Written Archives
Project, UCD)
The CALM implementation project
at James Hardiman Library Archives, NUI Galway
The James Hardiman Library Archives have recently
acquired CALM to centralise the management of our
cataloguing, service, and web interface within one
integrated system. We are introducing it to our archives
service in a three phase process:
1.
2.
The final stage of the implementation will see us
set up a CALMView website, which will be the
most visible result of this project. It represents an
important step in developing our interaction with
Retrospective and ongoing entry of finding aids/
our online users, as the Linked Data functionality
catalogue entries to the system
within CALM will enable researchers to find
relevant records possibly spanning a number of
Setting up service management infra
different collections. It will allow them to explore
structure on CALM
3.
within CALM.
collections they may not have been aware of, and
Setting up CALMView, as the web inter
face by which researchers can access our records
At the moment we are in the midst of Phase 1 of this
project, populating the database, which is undoubtedly
the most time consuming element of the process as we
migrate our finding aids. Some of these only exist in
paper format, and in some cases we have to adjust the
numbering to suit the hierarchical structure on CALM.
We are also working on populating the authority
database
in
order
to
help
researchers
navigate
collections containing both Irish and English language
offers the capability to broaden their research.
It is intended that the results of the CALM
implementation project,
which
is now fully
underway, will be available in the early months of
2014. Please keep an eye on our blog and twitter
accounts for further updates. We would also be
very
interested
to
hear
from
any
other
repositories engaged in similar initiatives, whether
with CALM or otherwise.
names and works. We are beginning to plan Phase 2 of
the project, using CALM for service management. This
second phase is timely as we review our service plan
ahead of our move to a new building. The aim with with
this is to enable us to tally information on what
For any further details, please contact Aisling
Keane
on
(091)
493353,
or
by
email
at
[email protected]
collections are consulted with the demographic of user,
and to capture statistics on this usage. In preparation,
we are setting up a user’s database, the loans and
productions database, and the locations database
Aisling Keane
James Hardiman Library, NUI Galway
Newsletter Summer 2013
Page 21
Archival Gems from the Londonderry Papers
In April 2013 the Public Record Office of Northern
available to researchers.
Ireland (PRONI) purchased a collection of archival
material known as ‘the Londonderry papers’. We had
previously held this archive on Indefinite Loan. The
The archive
archive dates from the early 17th century to the mid-
The Londonderry papers comprise the family,
19th century. It has long been recognised as one of
estate and political papers of the Stewart family,
the most important collections that we hold. PRONI
Marquesses of Londonderry. The Stewarts were
purchased the Londonderry papers for £665,000 – the
an important Irish landowning family with large
largest sum that the institution has ever paid for an
estates in Cos Donegal, Antrim and Down. They
archive. The purchase was made possible by funding
also owned property in England, including coal
from the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure.
mines in Durham. Their principal seat from the
mid-eighteenth century was at Mount Stewart,
The Londonderry papers were deposited in PRONI at
various times between 1950 and 1989.
Co Down.
They were
held on Indefinite Loan from Lady Mairi Bury, a
A number of family members played important
daughter of the 7th Marquess of Londonderry, who
roles in Irish, British and European politics. The
inherited the Irish portion of the Londonderry estates.
2nd
Following the death of Lady Mairi Bury in November
Castlereagh) was British foreign secretary 1812-
2009, the trustees of her estate decided to sell the
1822. The 6th Marquess was Lord Lieutenant of
Londonderry papers.
Under the terms of PRONI’s
Ireland, 1886-1889, and a prominent figure in
Indefinite Loan Agreement, it is a condition of
Irish unionism while his wife, Theresa, was a
deposit that PRONI must be given first refusal should
leading political hostess and a significant political
a depositor wish to withdraw records with a view to
figure in her own right.
selling them. The archive was valued at £950,000 by
government minister in Northern Ireland and
Sotheby’s (acting on behalf of the vendors).
An
Britain, is best remembered as a leading figure in
independent valuation sought by PRONI valued the
the German policy of appeasement in the 1930s.
records at £1,000,000 and noted that the archive was
The 7th Marquess’s wife, Edith, was also an
“of pre-eminent local, national and international
influential political figure with a wide circle of
importance”.
friends and correspondents amongst the political
The National Archives, Kew, who
monitor manuscript sales and advise grant awarding
Marquess
(usually
known
as
Lord
The 7th Marquess, a
and literary élite.
bodies on major purchases, stated that the purchase
price was indeed a fair price for a family and estate
collection of this calibre. Ultimately PRONI was able
The Londonderry papers are a mine of useful
to purchase the archive for £665,000.
If the
information for students of history, politics,
Londonderry papers had been sold at auction it is
literature, geography and demography as well as
likely that the archive would have left Northern
for genealogists and local historians. The archive
Ireland and possibly have been split between a
is spread over three collections (PRONI Refs
number of institutions.
D654, D2846 and D3099).
PRONI’s purchase of the
Together these
archive ensures that its integrity has been preserved
collections occupy approximately 172 linear
and that the records can continue to be made
metres of shelf space and include over 30,000
Newsletter Summer 2013
Page 22
documents, files, volumes, maps and plans.
D654 comprises the records of the Londonderry Estate
Office in Newtownards, Co. Down.
It comprises
approximately 12,000 documents and volumes dating
collieries and to their seat, Wynyard Park, near
Stockon-on-Tees and, in 1834, she also inherited
part of the Co Antrim property of her maternal
grandfather, the Marquess of Antrim. Charles
Stewart added Vane-Tempest to his surname to
reflect the importance of the union.
from the 17th to the 20th century.
D2846 mainly relates to Theresa, Marchioness of
Londonderry
(1856-1919),
the
wife
of
the
6th
Marquess. It also contains some of the 6th Marquess’
papers, which are of and about his mother, Mary
Cornelia, widow of the 5th Marquess, and of his
brothers Lords Henry and Herbert Vane-Tempest. The
archive comprises approximately 4,600 papers and 15
volumes of diaries, scrapbooks etc, dating from 18581919.
D3099 is mainly derived from the papers of the 7th
Frances Anne, being no stranger to foreign travel
and international affairs, travelled with her
husband to Russia, Berlin and Warsaw in 1837, in
what was then an unusual travel destination for
members of the British aristocracy. The journal
she kept of her travels in 1840 formed the basis of
a book published in 1844 entitled Narrative of a
visit to the courts of Vienna, Constantinople,
Athens, Naples etc. The journal is stunningly
bound and beautifully illustrated. It is a colourful
account of her travels with vivid descriptions and
observations of the lands and peoples she
encounters. When she arrives in Istanbul for the
first time she is clearly impressed: “The city of the
sultan, the queen of the east, deserves a fresh
chapter.’’
Marquess (1878-1949) and his wife, Edith Helen, née
Chaplin.
The archive consists of approximately 400
files and 10,000 letters, and primarily relate to the
career of Lord Londonderry.
In addition, the purchase (and subsequent gifts from
Lady Rose Lauritzen, daughter of Lady Mairi Bury)
includes 47 standard-sized archival boxes of records
which have yet to be catalogued. The initial box-listing
of
this
uncatalogued
material
uncovered
some
fascinating material. A notable ‘gem’ is Frances Anne
Vane-Tempest Stewart’s journal recording her travels
(1840-1841), with her husband, through Germany
along the river Rhine, through Austria along the
Danube, overland to Turkey, through the mountains of
Greece and Albania, and returning via Italy. This item
has yet to be catalogued and allocated a PRONI
reference number.
Colonel of the Jannissary
Frances Anne Vane-Tempest, married Lord Charles
William Stewart, the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry in
1829. It was a very favourable match as Frances Anne
was heiress to her family’s Co Durham estates and
The illustration from the journal pictured here is of
a Colonel of the Janissary, the elite guards of the
Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. These guards were
recruited as children, taken from Christian subjects
Newsletter Summer 2013
Page 23
from the Balkans and enrolled to train as guards in the
1936 during which they were entertained by
imperial court.
Herman Göring and Joachim von Ribbentrop and
met with Adolf Hitler on several occasions. The
Recently acquired and uncatalogued material in the
Londonderry papers also includes four programmes
from the 1936 Winter Olympics.
The programme
pictured here is from 8 February 1936.
The 1936
Winter Olympics were held in the Bavarian market
German visit is outlined in a souvenir diary
recording their daily itinerary compiled which was
sent to lady Londonderry by one of their guides
after the trip. Again, this item forms part of the
uncatalogued material.
town of Garmisch Partenkirchen in Germany between 6
-16 February.
The games were notable for many
The dazzling impression that Hitler’s Germany
reasons, chiefly, that they were organised by the Third
made
Reich
encapsulated in a letter sent by Lady Londonderry
and
officially
opened
by
Adolf
Hitler.
Controversy ensued when Rudi Ball, who was Jewish,
on
Lord
and
Lady
Londonderry
is
to Hitler on her return home:
was selected to play for the German men’s ice hockey
team. It is widely believed that a deal was struck with
the Nazi party to save his family if Ball represented
Germany in the games. Ball played four matches and
scored two goals.
He followed his family to South
Africa and died there in 1979.
"To say that I was deeply impressed is not
adequate.
I am amazed.
You and Germany
remind me of the Book of Genesis in the Bible.
Nothing else describes the position accurately.
The beauty of the buildings is something that I
shall not forget, their strength and simplicity are I
feel symbolic of their creator." (D3099/3/35/1/1).
In the same letter, Lady Londonderry writes that
both she and her husband "will do our best to
help towards a better understanding of our two
countries". (Access to the original letter is closed
but a copy of this item (D3099/3/35/1/1A) is open
to the public).
Lord Londonderry did not perceive that Germany
presented any military threat to Britain.
The
German officials that he met with were at pains to
stress that Germany wanted friendship with Britain
and that their accelerated military development
was simply a reflection of the country’s newly
found self-confidence and a necessary step to
Winter Olympics programme 8 February 1936
protect against a Soviet threat to the west. Once
home,
Lord
Londonderry
promoted
this
impression of Germany and his public and
The 7th Marquess of Londonderry and his wife, Lady
passionate endorsement of German appeasement
Edith, attended the Winter Olympics as guests of the
was to be the death knell of his political career.
Third Reich.
D3099 present a fascinating insight into the
The Olympics was one of the many
highlights of their visit to Germany in January/February
trajectory
of
Lord
Londonderry’s
stance
on
Newsletter Summer 2013
on appeasement.
Page 24
Key sections of this collection
PRONI plans to promote the Londonderry papers
relating to both Lord and Lady Londonderry have, to
through a series of events, some of which will be
date, been closed to the public due to the
organised in conjunction with partners such as the
depositor’s wishes. Consequently, staff in PRONI are
National Trust and the Federation for Ulster Local
prioritising improving the catalogue descriptions of
Studies. On 14th November 2013, PRONI will host
this collection and working towards opening up as
a half-day seminar on the Londonderry papers;
much of the archive as possible to researchers.
further details will be publicised on our website
nearer the date.
The purchase of the Londonderry papers also offers
PRONI the scope to highlight the collection and
The purchase of the Londonderry papers presents
facilitate public access through future digitisation
PRONI with the opportunity to improve the
projects. The so-called 1803 Returns (D654/A/2/1A)
catalogue descriptions and storage conditions of
have been identified for digitisation in 2014/2015. In
one of its key archives.
1803,
facilitate wider access to the collection by revising
the
1st
Marquess
of
anticipation
of
a
invasion
French
Londonderry,
of
in
Ireland
earlier
access
decisions
It also enables us to
and
engaging
in
commissioned an agricultural survey of returns for
digitisation projects.
over 40, mainly maritime parishes, in County Down.
archive and engage with the public through telling
The survey is an inventory of livestock, provisions,
the stories of the fascinating characters that ‘live’
crops and equipment. The returns record the names
within the archive.
It allows us promote the
of householders by townland and parish and also
detail stock held.
Lorraine Bourke and Brett Irwin,
Public Record Office of Northern
Ireland
1803 Returns - Parish of Upper Iveagh, Co Down
Newsletter Summer 2013
Page 25
WELCOME TO THE 60s!
An exhibition of Annie Brophy photographs from the 1960s.
Annie
Brophy
was
probably
the
first
female
professional photographer in Ireland. From her studio
in Barker Street, she photographed the people of
Waterford city and the surrounding counties from
1922 until the late 70s-that’s a career of over 55 years!
Her carefully posed, well-crafted photographs still take
pride
of
place
mantelpieces.
on
many
people’s
walls
and
Perhaps even more importantly they
evoke memories of times and people past.
Waterford City Archives has held her life’s work since
2004. The collection contains approximately 65,000
negatives and is slowly being processed.
The latest exhibition, the twelfth from the Collection,
features an entirely new selection of portraits from the
1960s. The subject matter is varied and reflects the
changes in style, presentation and content in that most
seminal of decades. Where possible, the people in the
photographs will be fully identified.
For further information on the exhibition or the
Annie Brophy Photographic Collection, contact
Donal Moore, Waterford City Archivist on (051)
843123 or [email protected] .
The exhibition will run in the Medieval Museum,
Waterford Museum of Treasures, Cathedral Square,
Waterford from Friday 16th August to Sunday 29th
Donal Moore
September. Opening hours are Monday-Saturday, 9.30
Waterford City Archivist
-18.00 and Sunday, 11.00-18.00
Newsletter Summer 2013
Page 26
Sums and Blackshirts :
the archive of Albert Joseph McConnell
at TCD) and Edmund Taylor Whittaker.
It also
contains his and his peers’ publications; drafts of
lectures and talks; examination papers for TCD and
National University of Ireland (McConnell was an
external examiner); and, yes, pages and pages of
calculations.
But it is when one turns to the material from
McConnell’s time as Provost (1952-1974) that his
archive reveals a wider research value.
When
McConnell was elected Provost in 1952, TCD
seemed to be in terminal decline, living off former
glories.
It was considered a private Protestant
college, cut off from the mainstream of Irish
society since Independence, and bogged down in
IE TCD MS 10888-8-3-51
Black & white photograph of
an
archaic
administrative
structure
where
Provost Albert Joseph McConnell and President Éamon de
doddering, change-averse academics clung to
Valera, Trinity Monday 1961
their fellowships (and attendant privileges) until
the end of their long lives.
At first glance, the archive of Albert Joseph McConnell
A brilliant
McConnell was elected in a ‘palace revolution’ by
mathematician and Trinity College Dublin’s longest-
a wing of frustrated Junior Fellows with a mandate
serving Provost for two centuries, McConnell’s papers
to change this. Over the course of his Provostship
seemed likely to be heavy on sums and admin.
he introduced a mandatory retirement age of 70
(1903-1993) might not seem inviting.
on Fellows (and himself as Provost); began an
ambitious programme of development, which saw
And it is true, both these facets are documented amply
the Moyne Institute of Preventive Medicine (1953)
in the archive.
and Berkeley Library (1967) built, the Arts Building
Ballymena
Precocious McConnell, son of
Presbyterians,
graduated
from
TCD,
begun, Townley Hall acquired as an agricultural
achieved his doctorate, was made Professor and Fellow
institute (1957), and the historical buildings
of TCD and Member of the Royal Irish Academy, and
renovated; the first female member of TCD Board
published his first book (on differential calculus), all
before the age of 30. His archive includes letters from
noted Irish and international mathematicians and
scientists - Alexander Craig Aitken, Rev Pádraig de
Brún (Patrick Browne), William Daniel Gill, Heini
(1958) and first female fellows (1967) were elected;
and the College survived the government's
attempted merger with University College Dublin
(UCD) (1967).
Halberstam, Cornelius Lanczos, William Hunter McCrea,
Max Neumann/Newman, Alfred O’Rahilly, Lochlainn Ó
There was opposition to such reform, and the
Raifeartaigh, John Lighton Synge (McConnell’s teacher
archive is fascinating on the internal power
Newsletter Summer 2013
Page 27
struggles in the early years of McConnell’s Provostship.
Irish-American) life.
His former ally and TCD Bursar, George Alexander
McConnell at some function appeared in The Irish
Duncan, continually obstructed him, shunning Board
Times almost every other week. The Irish Times
meetings, refusing to pay the Provost’s expenses,
also reported McConnell’s celebrated speech to
plotting with a gang of five Senior Fellows to vote
the Blackrock Literary Debating Society (22
down McConnell’s preferred candidates, resigning and
October 1955), calling for an end to ‘violent
then
moment
attacks’ on TCD by the Catholic establishment, and
McConnell found his replacement. In an astonishing
outlining his vision for the College’s place within a
draft speech to TCD professors, which may never have
newly tolerant Ireland.
been
withdrawing
delivered,
McConnell
railed
his
such
resignation
is
against
its
the
the
emotive
actions
Certainly, a photograph of
language,
of
their
representatives on the Board, and the ‘intrigue’ of
Duncan. But eventually the persistence of McConnell
and his supporters – Basil Chubb, Frank Mitchell,
Herbert William Parke, and David Webb in particular –
won through.
McConnell was not being hyperbolic.
His main
task was to make cash-strapped TCD eligible for
Government and municipal grants that were being
made available to the NUI colleges. As Registrar
in 1951, he was part of a TCD delegation that met
Taoiseach John A. Costello and Minister for
Finance
Patrick
McGilligan
(recorded
manuscript minute in the archive).
in
a
McGilligan’s
naked hostility to TCD was voiced in sectarian
language – Trinity’s teaching ‘was offensive to
Catholics’.
McGilligan’s views were echoed by
UCD President Michael Tierney, who scuppered
McConnell’s
frequent
proposals
for
inter-
university co-operation.
But
McConnell
had
one
powerful,
perhaps
surprising, ally. When Taoiseach Éamon de Valera
founded the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies
in 1940, he appointed McConnell to the board of
its constituent School of Theoretical Physics.
McConnell became a good friend of de Valera and
his mentor in mathematics on the death of A.W.
IE TCD MS 10888-2-13
Proof cartoon by Robert Pyke of
Provost Albert Joseph McConnell for Irish Tatler & Sketch,
March 1967.
Conway (de Valera was a graduate of, and teacher
in mathematics, and retained a lifelong passion for
the subject; McConnell co-edited William Rowan
Hamilton’s papers on dynamics with Conway).
Along with this ‘war at home’, McConnell began a
campaign to overturn TCD’s negative image in Irish
society. His typescript retirement speech – essentially
a memoir of his time at TCD – reveals how he
determined to attend every function at which the Irish
elite gathered, and open the doors of the Provost’s
House to groups from all walks of Irish (and, cannily,
McConnell’s election as Provost coincided with de
Valera’s return to power, and the Taoiseach made
sure McConnell got the grants he needed; he
opened buildings and exhibitions; and regularly
attended the College Races. By 1970, McConnell’s
public relations campaign had succeeded; even
Archbishop McQuaid had to lift the ‘ban’ on
Newsletter Summer 2013
Catholics attending TCD.
Page 28
In 1973, de Valera, now
famously complicated personal life is reflected in
President, appointed McConnell to the Council of
the
archive,
which
includes
letters
and/or
State, the first member of the TCD Board so honoured.
postcards from his wife Annemarie, his mistress
Hilde March, and their daughter Ruth. In 1950,
De Valera was not the first controversial figure
McConnell
encountered
in
his
lifetime.
After
McConnell received his doctorate in Fascist Rome,
where he worked under the Jewish mathematician
Tullio Levi-Civita, he returned in 1935.
The archive
contains photographs of dictator Benito Mussolini
walking the streets with supporters, and opening the
Sapienza University of Rome. In 1938, following a visit
to Czechoslovakia and Austria, both recently occupied
by the Nazis, McConnell was interviewed in The Irish
Times (‘War fever in Europe : a Dublin man’s
impressions’, 29 September 1938).
The archive also
while
McConnell
Congress
of
attended
the
International
in
Cambridge,
Mathematics
Massachusetts, his first wife Hilda (herself a
scholar who assisted Edmund Curtis on his
Calendar of Ormond Deeds) stayed with Hilde
March in Innsbruck.
Hilde was the wife of
Schrödinger’s former assistant, the physicist Arthur
March, and Hilda’s long, funny, gossipy letters to
McConnell about the March household (‘the Herr
Prof.’ and the ‘Hausfrau’), where the atmosphere
was tense because ‘naughty’ ‘Erwin’ was also a
guest, is one of the treasures of the archive.
holds a 1936 postcard to McConnell from Nona Keitel,
an exchange student from Germany. TCD had so many
Michael O’Reilly said of McConnell in the Irish
German students in the 1930s that the FBI kept a file
Independent that he was ‘a jovial man with a deep
on the College. They were right to be suspicious; Nona
interest in his fellow men’.
was the daughter of Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, the
extending far beyond the world of mathematics,
commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht who would be
include Kadar Asmal, founder of the Irish Anti-
tried and executed for war crimes in the Nuremberg
Apartheid Movement and later South African
Trials.
minister; Moses Majekodunmi, Nigerian Minister
His correspondents,
for Health; feminists Thekla Beere and Andrée
Sheehy Skeffington; artists Frances Kelly (wife of
TCD Chancellor, Frederick Boland) and Anne de
Douzon; cultural or literary historians Htin Aung,
M.F. Liddell, Walter Starkie, and Terence de Vere
White; architects Raymond McGrath, Hugh Casson
(one of whose letters includes a sketch of the
Provost’s House), & A.E. Richardson (who advised
McConnell
on
renovating
the
residence);
aristocrats Olive Pakenham Mahon, the Earl of
Wicklow, Lords Iveagh, Moyne and Rosse, the
Marchioness of Normanby and the appeaser Lord
IE TCD MS 10888/2/22 Postcard from Nona Keitel to Albert
Joseph McConnell, 22 December 1936
Halifax; businessmen such as Neil McCann,
founder of Fyffes banana company; and the
philosopher John Oulton Wisdom.
McConnell
loved cats – the archive has many photographs of
McConnell’s colleague in DIAS was the Nobel-winning
them roaming his study – and was a member of
physicist Erwin Schrödinger, who had been offered the
the International Association of Abyssinian Cat
directorship of the School of Theoretical Physics by de
Owners,
Valera on fleeing the Nazis in Austria. Schrödinger’s
prestigious bodies.
as
well
as
more
conventionally
Newsletter Summer 2013
Page 29
But Hilda is the real soul of the archive, the organising
spirit behind the hospitality at the Provost’s House
enjoyed by so many grateful correspondents, including
former British Prime Ministers Clement Attlee and Alec
Douglas-Home; infamous spy Kenneth Hugh de
Courcy; poet and National Gallery of Ireland Director
Thomas MacGreevy; and sculptor Seamus Murphy,
who executed a bust of McConnell. Hilda died in 1966,
after
a
car
accident
in
France
–
McConnell’s
correspondence with French government officials,
consular
staff,
hospitals,
lawyers
and
insurance
companies in an attempt to get justice for Hilda, is an
extraordinary case study in itself. News of her death
The archive of Albert Joseph McConnell – papers,
publications, photographs, tape recordings and
objects – was catalogued over the summer of
2013, funded by TCD alumni John and James Stitt.
It is available to consult in TCD’s Manuscript &
Archive Research Library, as TCD MS 10888; for
the online catalogue, see :
http://marloc.library.tcd.ie/calmview/Record.aspx?
src=CalmView.Catalog&id=IE+TCD+MS+10888&p
os=1
Further information on the collection can be found
at :
http://
manuscriptsattrinity.wordpress.com/2013/05/30/
mussolini-and-other-friends/
prompted telegrams and letters of condolence from
Taoisigh, Prime Ministers and Government ministers,
ambassadors, academics, and writers, most of which
were sent with genuine sorrow as much as by dictates
of protocol. McConnell would marry Jean Shekleton in
1983 after a long-term relationship, but she is almost a
ghost in the archive, more present in the Provost’s
House accounts that list her
wages (she was
housekeeper) than in the handful of postcards sent
from a holiday, and some cards addressed by others
that otherwise mark her presence.
IE TCD MS 10888-8-3-37
Colour photograph of Hilda
McConnell in Provost House, holding Abyssinian cat, [c. 19521959];
Darragh O’Donoghue
Assistant Librarian
Manuscripts and Archives Research
Library
Trinity College Dublin