University College Cork
Special Collections, UCC Library holds a number of distinct collections of Gaelic Manuscripts. The largest of these, the Torna Collection (111 MSS), formed the collection of Professor Tadhg Ó Donnchadha (Torna), Professor of Irish at University College Cork (1916–1944). This collection came into the possession of UCC following the death of Torna in 1949 and has been catalogued by Professor Pádraig de Brún in Clár Lamhscríbhinní Gaeilge Choláiste Ollscoile Chorcaí: Cnuasach Thorna (1967).
Seventy-seven manuscripts formed the collection of Professor James E.H. Murphy, Professor of Irish at Trinity College Dublin (1896–1919). A catalogue of this collection has been compiled by Dr Breandán Ó Conchuir: Clár Lamhscríbhinní Gaeilge Choláiste Ollscoile Chorcai: Cnuasach Uí Mhurchú (1991).
Most of the remaining manuscripts belonged to Canon Patrick Power, Lecturer in and later Professor of Archaeology at University College Cork (1915–1932).
In 2020 the Book of Lismore (al. The Book of McCarthy Reagh), a vellum manuscript written at Kilbrittain, Co. Cork c. 1478, was donated by the Chatsworth Settlement Trust and the Duke of Devonshire to University College Cork. This now forms the centrepiece of our collection of Gaelic manuscripts.
Other highlights from the UCC Collection include a version of Geoffrey Keating’s Foras Feasa ar Éirinn in a 17th-century hand which has been made available via this project.
UCC manuscript collections are accessible to all readers on application to Special Collections, UCC Library. Further information on opening hours and access arrangements is available at https://libguides.ucc.ie/library.
UCC Library is delighted to be able to participate in the ISOS Project and in doing so to contribute to the objectives of ISOS in providing electronic access some of our most important heritage collections. We look forward to continuing to make additional Gaelic manuscripts available to academic communities and the general public via ISOS into the future.
Crónán Ó Doibhlin
Head of Special Collections, Archives & Repository Services, UCC Library.
