Trinity unveils precious Early Irish manuscripts

Precious Irish manuscripts from the Dark Ages have been conserved by Trinity College Dublin (TCD) following a three-year programme. The rarely seen manuscripts from early Christianity have been repaired, analysed and digitised and will be on public display, on a rotational basis, at the Book of Kells Exhibition at TCD.

The manuscripts are the Codex Usserianius Primus, the Garland of Howth, the Book of Dimma, and the Book of Mulling. They join the Book of Kells, the Book of Durrow and the Book of Armagh to form the most pre-eminent collection of early Irish manuscripts in the world.

The painstaking conservation project involved the treatment, technical examination and art historical study of the four priceless manuscripts. This included the repair of these fragile manuscripts as well as scientific analysis of the pigments.

The manuscripts’ pages have also been photographed and published making them available to the public and researchers around the world for the first time. You can view them online here.

Each manuscript comes from a different part of Ireland and their stories are rich in history and myth. Introductory videos are available for each on YouTube:

Garland of Howth is a ninth century parchment manuscript. Associated with St Nessan’s monastery on Ireland’s Eye, off the coast of Howth in Dublin, it contains a copy of the four Gospels.

Book of Mulling is an eighth century pocket-gospel, with ninth century additions and is associated with the monastery of St Mullin’s in Co Carlow. It contains a copy of the four Gospels, and features portraits of the evangelists Matthew, Mark and John, together with illuminated initials.

Book of Dimma a late eighth century manuscript, possibly produced at Roscrea, Co Tipperary, contains a copy of the four Gospels. The name ‘Dimma’ refers to the scribe of Saint Cronan, who according to tradition was asked to write a gospel book in one day. He achieved this because miraculously, the sun did not set for 40 days.

Codex Usserianius Primus is one of the earliest known surviving Irish manuscripts, dating back to the fifth or sixth century. It is not known where it came from prior to its acquisition by Trinity Library in the 17th century but annotation in early Irish confirms that it was in Ireland from an early date.

Military Archives reopens for research appointments

The Reading Room of the Military Archives reopens today to researchers with appointments.

It's been closed for the past six weeks to facilitate the arrival of new collections to storage and to finish other projects left over from last year's restoration and rebuild works to the archive buildings.

Reading Room appointments are offered from 10am to 12:30pm and from 1:30pm to 4pm on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

See the FAQ of militaryarchives.ie for more details about how to book an appointment, and to download Reading Room Rules and a Researcher Application Form.

Ireland's Registry of Deeds: latest index updates

The latest update to the Registry of Deeds Index Project sees 242,008 index entries available for free searching. These entries, submitted by volunteers, have been taken from 24,147 memorials of deeds.

In addition, there are also now 39,476 townland index entries and 16,110 grantor index entries.

The Registry of Deeds Index Project is free to search. It is a crowd-sourced project, managed by researchers for researchers, and is always looking for more volunteers to help make more of the Registry of Deeds archive accessible to Irish genealogists.

Irish genealogy and history events, 5–18 June

Monday 5 June: Bank holiday in Republic of Ireland only. Normal working hours in Northern Ireland.

Until the end of June: Con and Eva – Gendering Revolution, an exhibition exploring the revolutionary lives of two sisters, Constance Markievicz and Eva Gore-Booth. Host and venue: Irish World Heritage Centre, 1 Irish Town Way, Cheetham, Manchester, UK. Free. Details.

Monday 5 June: Ireland in 1917, with Dr Stephen Sandford. Part of the Battle of Messines lunchtime lecture series, co-hosted by PRONI and the Antrim and Down Branch of the Western Front Association. Venue: Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, Titanic Boulevard, Belfast, BT3 9HQ. 12:30-1:30pm. Free. All welcome. Booking advised.

Tuesday 6 June: The myths of 1917, with Dr Tim Bowman. Part of the Battle of Messines lunchtime lecture series, co-hosted by PRONI and the Antrim and Down Branch of the Western Front Association. Venue: Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, Titanic Boulevard, Belfast, BT3 9HQ. 12:30-1:30pm. Free. All welcome. Booking advised.

Wednesday 7 June: James Franklin Fuller, FRIBA, FRSAI, FSA. (1835-1924) – Great architect; dubious genealogist? with Bob Frewen. Host: Irish Genealogical Research Society. Venue: Helen Roe Theatre, Royal Society of Antiquaries Ireland, Society House, 63 Merrion Square, Dublin 2. Free. No booking required. 6:45pm. All welcome.

Wednesday 7 June: The limits of partnership: The Irish divisions in Flanders in 1917, with Nicholas Perry. Last of the Battle of Messines lunchtime lecture series, co-hosted by PRONI and the Antrim and Down Branch of the Western Front Association. Venue: PRONI, Titanic Boulevard, Belfast, BT3 9HQ. 12:30-1:30pm. Free. All welcome. Booking advised.

Wednesday 7 June: Online resources for Irish family history, with John Grenham. Host: Raheny Heritage Society. Venue: Raheny Library, Howth Rd, Raheny, Dublin 5. All welcome. Free. 6.30pm.

Thurssday 8 June: Four Soldiers, Three Armies, with Trevor Adams. Hosts: Western Front Association and PRONI. Venue: Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, Titanic Boulevard, Belfast, BT3 9HQ. All welcome. £4 donation requested. 6:30pm to 8:45pm. Details.

Friday 9 June: International Archives Day – Behind the Scenes Tours and Workshop. Host and venue: Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, Titanic Boulevard, Belfast. Free. Booking essential. Details. (At 29 May, the workshop is fully booked. Tours still have some space.)

Friday 9 June to Sunday 11 June: Irish Military Seminar. Lectures, screenings, weapon and vehicle displays and workshops, field trip. Hosts: Kildare Library Services, Ireland’s Military Story magazine and Merrion Press. Venue: Riverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge, Co Kildare. Free. Booking essential. Programme and details.

Saturday 10 June: Researching Scots-Irish Ancestors, with Sheila Northrop. Host: Irish Genealogical Society Intl (IGSI). Venue: Minnesota Genealogical Society (MGS) Library, 1185 N. Concord, South St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. Starts at 10:30am. Cost is $15 for IGSI members and $20 for non-members. Register.

Tuesday 13 June: How online sources helped put flesh on the bones of the Beglan family tree, with Mary Beglan. Host: Genealogical Society of Ireland. Venue: Dún Laoghaire FE Institute, 17 Cumberland St, Dún Laoghaire, Co. Dublin. 8pm. All welcome. €3 donation requested.

Tuesday 13 June: Irish Family History Group, monthly meeting. Host and venue: The Core Library, Theatre Square, Homer Road, Solihull, UK, B91 3RG. 10am to Noon. All welcome to attend for free genealogy help and support.

Tuesday 13 June: Dublin housing in the 1800s, with Seán Bagnall. Host: Tallaght Historical Society. Venue: South Dublin County Library, The Square. Tallaght, Co Dublin. 7pm. Free. All welcome. No booking required.

Wednesday 14 June: The Way We Were, a special event celebrating Sligo's history. Venue: Hawsk Well Theatre, Temple Street, Sligo. Speakers include John McTernon, Simone Hickey and John Carton. County Sligo Heritage and Genealogy Society will be on hand to discuss family history research. Tickets €10, includes light refreshments. Details and booking.

Thursday 15 June: The Easter Rising through the eyes of Protestants in Dublin, with Ian d’Alton. Host: Leixlip History Club. Venue: Leixlip Library, Captain's Hill, Newtown, Leixlip, Co. Kildare. 7:15pm. All welcome.

Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives: latest updates

Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives have added the following mixed records to the free online database since the middle of May. In addition to the regular uploads of headstone photos and transcribed records, the team of volunteers has completed a special project of making available around 2,000 memorial cards relating (mostly) to County Wexford, which were bequeathed to IGP Archives by the brother of Michael Doyle, an avid family historian. See the blogpost announcing the launch of this project.

From the Wexford Memorial Card Collection

CAVAN Genealogy Archives - Headstones
St. Mary's Graveyard, Staghall Part 1
St. Mary's Graveyard, Staghall, Part 2

LONGFORD Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Kilmahon Cemetery

MAYO Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Swinford, Kilconduff Cemetery

MEATH Genealogy Archives - Headstones
St. Mary's, Navan (Right Side) (J-L)

MONAGHAN & FERMANAGH Genealogy Archives - Church Records
Clones Marriages 1812-1815 (Western Division)
Clones Marriages 1811-1814 (Eastern Division)

WATERFORD Genealogy Archives - Headstones
Churchtown Cemetery - partial
Crooke Cemetery, Passage East
St. Otteran's - Parts 1 & 2

WEXFORD Genealogy Archives
Photos:
Memorial Cards (Wexford Funeral Card Project – more than 1,000 items added)
Headstones:
Rathaspick Church Graveyard
St. Mogue's Graveyard, Fethard
Templetown Graveyard

5 June: Bank Holiday in Republic of Ireland

There's a long weekend coming up in the Republic of Ireland. If you were planning on using the time to carry out some research, be aware that most relevant institutions will be operating on public holiday schedules, as below.

The National Archives of Ireland (and its free Genealogy Service) will be closed on Monday 5 June, reopening at 9:15am on Tuesday 6 June.

The National Library of Ireland's Reading Room will operate to normal weekend hours (Saturday 9:30am to 12.45pm; Sunday closed). Neither the Reading Room nor the free Genealogy Service will be available on Monday 5 June.

Exhibitions at the National Library of Ireland will be open on Saturday and Sunday as usual (Kildare Street: Saturday 9.30am–4.45pm; Sunday: 1:00pm–4:45pm. National Photographic Archive Gallery in Temple Bar: Saturday 10am–5pm; Sunday: 12pm–5pm). Bank holiday Monday opening will be from 12pm to 5pm only at both locations.

Dublin City Library & Archive will be closed on Saturday 3 June and Monday 5 June, as will all branch libraries in the Republic.

The General Register Office Research Room at Werburgh Street, Dublin, will not open on Monday 5 June. It will reopen at 9:30am on Tuesday 6 June.

The Research Room of the Representative Church Body Library will be closed on Monday 5 June, reopening at 9:30am on Tuesday 6 June.

NOTE: This bank holiday applies only in the Republic; Northern Ireland institutions (as all in the UK) will be working to normal hours, having had their early summer holiday the previous week.

RootsIreland adds 25,000 records for County Kildare

RootsIreland.ie has added 24,838 record transcriptions to its Kildare Genealogy database. They are:

Narraghmore RC Parish (includes Crookstown and Kilmead): Baptisms, April 1827 to September 1899; and Marriages, January 1827 to 6 February 1896

Kill RC Parish: Burials, September 1903 - 11 March 1912

Graveyard inscriptions from 70+ burial grounds: These include some single inscriptions for a handful of graveyards, plus seven graveyards in Athy (with 2,800 inscriptions from St Michael's alone); plus several cemeteries in each of Castledermot, Kilcock, Maynooth and Naas; Curragh Military Cemetery and many others.

You can see RootsIreland's detailed list of the online sources for County Kildare here.

Kildare Genealogy advise that various corrections and updates have also been made to the database, and new transcriptions/records are being worked on for future uploads.

Wexford Library Service launches online collection

County Wexford's Library Service wexford has launched a new digital collection of local journals, photographs, old postcards, and historical texts relating to the 'Model County'.

It's a sizeable collection, holding more than 1,200 items, so for those with ancestral connections in the area, this is definitely worth dipping into and bookmarking.

The local historical and parish journals collection holds more than 500 publications and includes The Past, Taghmon Historical Society Journal, Wexford Historical Society (Old Wexford Society) Journal and the Kilmore Parish Journal.

There are also more than 350 books of local interest. A selection of 18th- and 20th-century historical texts and records includes Griffiths' Chronicles of the County of Wexford to 1877 ; Fraser's Statistical Survey of the County of Wexford, (1807); O'Donovan's Ordnance Survey Letters - Wexford; Lacy's Sights and Scenes in Our Fatherland, (1863); and Grattan Flood's History of the Diocese of Ferns, (1916).

Additional material will join the online collection as it is digitised. Already, the Oral Recordings collection has grown from 20 items to more than 180, with the additions mostly coming from interviews conducted over the last ten years.

To view the local collection see http://digital.libraries.wexfordcoco.ie, and select Advanced Search.

UCD Digital Library is working on more Police registers

University College Dublin Digital Library has advised that it is currently working on the digitisation of the Dublin Metropolitan Police General Register, (1835-1925), and the Civil Guard Temporary Register, 1922-1925.

Click for larger view

The registers, which are held by An Garda Síochána Garda Museum and Archives, have already been scanned but it will be a few months before the scans make their way online. They will be launched initially as an image-only collection ie they won't be text searchable.

They will join the Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) Prisoners' Books, 1903-18 collection on the free-to-access platform. Once online, researchers will be able to research the prisoners (in the DMP Prisoners Books) and then look up details of the arresting officer (DMP General Register).

The Civic Guard was formed in 1921, after the Royal Irish Constaulary was disbanded; it was renamed the Garda Síochána na hÉireann in August 1923. The Dublin Metropolitan Police merged with An Garda Síochána in 1925.

Irish genealogy and history events, 29 May to 11 June

Monday 29 May: Bank holiday in Northern Ireland.

Tuesday 30 May: Irish family history seminar, with the Ulster Historical Foundation. Host: Australian Institute of Genealogical Studies. Venue: Willis Room, Whitehorse Centre, 397 Whitehorse Rd, Nunawading, Melbourne, Australia. 9:30am-4:30pm. $45. SOLD OUT.

Tuesday 30 May: Domestic service in Kilrush, Co. Clare from 1881 to 1951, with Lisa O’Sullivan. Host: Kilrush and District Historical Society. Venue: Teach Ceoil, Grace Street, Kilrush, Co. Clare. 8pm–9pm. All welcome.

Tuesday 30 May to 9 June: Messines Memorial exhibition, an art installation entitled ‘Assembly - Memorial Chairs’ by artist Val Carman. During the course of this battle, the 16th (Irish) division fought side by side with the 36th (Ulster) division. Host and venue: PRONI, Titanic Boulevard, Belfast. Exhibition free during normal opening hours until 1pm Friday 9th. 

Wednesday 31 May: Irish Family History Day, with the Ulster Historical Foundation. Host: Genealogical Society of Victoria, Irish Ancestry Group. Venue: 107 Victoria Harbour Promenade, Docklands, Melbourne, Australia. 9:30am-4:30pm. $45. Details. SOLD OUT.

Wednesday 31 May: The Great Parchment Book, with Philippa Smith. Host: London Metropolitan Archives. Venue: Heritage Gallery at Guildhall Art Gallery, London EC2, UK. Talk marks London History Day. 10:30am. Free and all welcome, but need to book.

Wednesday 31 May: From Messines to Carrick Hill: Writing Home from the Great War, with Tom Burke. Host and venue: National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2. 7pm. All welcome. No booking required. Details.

Thursday 1 June and Friday 2 June: Women and Irishness, conference. Host: Women on Ireland Research. Venue: Waterford Institute of Technology, Cork Road, Waterford City, County Waterford. €50 for one day; €75 for two days. Programme and registration.

Thursday 1 June: The island of Ireland and the Great War in Flanders, with Piet Chielens. Host and venue: PRONI, Titanic Boulevard, Belfast. 7pm. Free but need to book.

Friday 2 June: The British Army in 1917: how serious were the morale problems? with Dr Tom Thorpe. First of the Battle of Messines lecture series, co-hosted by PRONI and the Antrim and Down Branch of the Western Front Association. Venue: Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, Titanic Boulevard, Belfast BT3 9HQ. 12:30-1:30pm. Free. All welcome. Booking advised.

Saturday 3 June : Irish family history, with the Ulster Historical Foundation. Part of the New Zealand Society of Genealogists's 50th Anniversary Conference. Venue: Alexandra Park, Greenlane West, Auckland New Zealand. 9am–6pm. Day rate: $92 (or full conference $230). Details.

Sunday 4 June: Irish family history, an evening lecture with the Ulster Historical Foundation. Host: Loyal Orange Institution of New Zealand. Venue: Sudima Hotel, 18 Airport Drive, Airport Oaks, Auckland, New Zealand. 7pm–9pm. More details.

Monday 5 June: Bank holiday in Republic of Ireland.

Monday 5 June: Ireland in 1917, with Dr Stephen Sandford. Part of the Battle of Messines lunchtime lecture series, co-hosted by PRONI and the Antrim and Down Branch of the Western Front Association. Venue: Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, Titanic Boulevard, Belfast, BT3 9HQ. 12:30-1:30pm. Free. All welcome. Booking advised.

Tuesday 6 June: The myths of 1917, with Dr Tim Bowman. Part of the Battle of Messines lunchtime lecture series, co-hosted by PRONI and the Antrim and Down Branch of the Western Front Association. Venue: Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, Titanic Boulevard, Belfast, BT3 9HQ. 12:30-1:30pm. Free. All welcome. Booking advised.

Wednesday 7 June: James Franklin Fuller, FRIBA, FRSAI, FSA. (1835-1924) – Great architect; dubious genealogist? with Bob Frewen. Host: Irish Genealogical Research Society. Venue: Helen Roe Theatre, Royal Society of Antiquaries Ireland, Society House, 63 Merrion Square, Dublin 2. Free. No booking required. 6:45pm. All welcome.

Wednesday 7 June: The limits of partnership: The Irish divisions in Flanders in 1917, with Nicholas Perry. Last of the Battle of Messines lunchtime lecture series, co-hosted by PRONI and the Antrim and Down Branch of the Western Front Association. Venue: PRONI, Titanic Boulevard, Belfast, BT3 9HQ. 12:30-1:30pm. Free. All welcome. Booking advised.

Thurssday 8 June: Four Soldiers, Three Armies, with Trevor Adams. Hosts: Western Front Association and PRONI. Venue: Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, Titanic Boulevard, Belfast, BT3 9HQ. All welcome. £4 donation requested. 6:30pm to 8:45pm. Details.

Friday 9 June: International Archives Day – Behind the Scenes Tours and Workshop. Host and venue: Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, Titanic Boulevard, Belfast. Free. Booking essential. Details. (At 29 May, the workshop is fully booked. Tours still have some space.)

Friday 9 June to Sunday 11 June: Irish Military Seminar. Lectures, screenings, weapon and vehicle displays and workshops, field trip. Hosts: Kildare Library Services, Ireland’s Military Story magazine and Merrion Press. Venue: Riverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge, Co Kildare. Free. Booking essential. Programme and details.

Saturday 10 June: Researching Scots-Irish Ancestors, with Sheila Northrop. Host: Irish Genealogical Society Intl (IGSI). Venue: Minnesota Genealogical Society (MGS) Library, 1185 N. Concord, South St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. Starts at 10:30am. Cost is $15 for IGSI members and $20 for non-members. Register.