COLLECTIONS:

Special Collections

University Archives

Collection Preservation

Research Collections:
Irish Studies

Collection Overview
The Irish studies collection at the O'Neill Library includes a wide range of materials supporting the Irish Studies Program and the research needs of its faculty. The strongest areas of the Irish studies collection are history, literature, language, and music. The library also has significant holdings in the areas of politics, archaeology, social and economic history, religion, and mythology, and genealogy.

The O'Neill Library aims for completeness in acquiring all newly-published materials in these areas. Each year, the library also makes retrospective purchases, including large microform collections. Purchases are made in the following areas: literary manuscripts and collections; national and regional newspapers; statistical collections; government publications; and political or historical materials.

The O'Neill Library provides access to the wealth of Irish studies materials published after 1800. Materials pertaining to Irish art and architecture are available at the Bapst Library. Books published before 1800 generally reside at the John J. Burns Library, with special collections pertaining to Irish and Irish-Americans housed in the John J. Burns Library Manuscripts Collections.  The O'Neill Library works closely with the Burns and Bapst libraries in identifying collection needs, providing research support to faculty, graduate students, undergraduate students, alumni, and the greater community.

Within the last few years, the library has expanded its Irish media collection in the O’Neill Library Media Center. Poetry readings, dramatic productions, recorded literary works, language courses, documentaries, myths, folklore, cinema, music, and dance, are collected to enrich and complement classroom instruction. The expanding Irish music offerings at Boston College have led to a comprehensive collecting strategy for newly-released traditional Irish music recordings, complementing the collections in the Irish Music Center in the John J. Burns Library.
 

Selected Resources

In the O'Neill Library:

• Collected works and critical editions of all major Irish and Anglo-Irish writers: novelists, poets, dramatists and related works of criticism.

• Monographic and serial collections covering all periods of Irish history.

• Reference works: Moody, T.W. New History of Ireland series, Encyclopedia of Ireland, Sources for the Early History of Ireland-Ecclesiastical: An Introduction and Guide, Manuscript Sources for the History of Irish Civilization, The Galway Resource for Anglo-Irish Literature (GRAIL).

• Extensive holdings in Irish studies journal literature and current and historical newspapers, including major collections on microform. Selected examples include: a complete set of the Irish Text Society series; the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Sections A, B and C; Analectica Hibernica, Eire Ireland, Eiru, Irish Historical Studies, The Irish Times, The Belfast Telegraph, The Belfast Newsletter (early 18th. Century), The Derry Journal, Foinse, The Northern Ireland Political and Radical Newspapers of the Twentieth Century Phase I, Irish Newspapers in the Dublin Libraries, Northern Ireland Political Literature. The publication, Irish Serials in the Boston College Libraries, is a complete, searchable database of Irish interest journals and newspapers at Boston College.

• Government Publications: Dail Eireann. Parliamentary Debates; Seanad Eireann, Parliamentary Debates; Northern Ireland. Parliament. House of Commons. The Parliamentary Debates (Official Report). Belfast: H.M.S.O., 1921-1972, Northern Ireland. Parliament. Senate. Parliamentary Debates (Official Report). Belfast: H.M.S.O., 1921-1972, The Irish University Press series of British Parliamentary Papers.

• Dictionaries and grammars to support the study of the Irish language.

• Novels, short stories and poetry in the Irish language, including some first and or critical editions of works from the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth century. Representative authors include Geoffrey Keating, Brian Merriman, Tomas Ó Criomhthain, and Flann O’Brien.

• Full text database on CD-ROM: Archive of Celtic-Latin Literature-fulltext.

On the Web (Restricted to the BC Community):

• General indexes: Arts & Humanities Citation Index (Web of Science), Expanded Academic Index ASAP (InfoTrac), FRANCIS Bulletin Signalétique.

• Full text database: W.B. Yeats Collection (1885-1995).

• Electronic journals pertaining to Irish studies may be found at the following e-journal gateways: JSTOR and Project Muse.

• Other databases in the humanities: Subject Indexes to Online Databases: Humanities.  This web page also has links to databases outside the humanities.

Research Guides
More information about available resources can be found in: Research Guide: Irish Studies, Irish Music Center, and in the searchable database, Irish Serials in the Boston College Libraries.

Interdisciplinary Elements of Subject Area
Irish Studies at Boston College is extremely diverse. The collection encompasses history, literature, fine arts, the social sciences, politics, and religion.

Formats and Types of Materials
Formats collected include print, electronic, microform, and audiovisual. Types of materials include monographs, serials, and reference works including major indexes, abstracts, catalogs, bibliographies, yearbooks, dictionaries, encyclopedias, research guides, and directories.

Languages
Materials published in Western languages are emphasized, particularly English, Irish, French, and German. Significant texts in Latin are also collected.

Geographic Areas (Subject Approach)
The major geographic concerns are Ireland, the United Kingdom, and North America, with additional materials from Australia and New Zealand. In light of the Boston College Libraries' resource-sharing agreement with the Linen Hall Library in Belfast, the library plans to expand its holdings relating to the peace process in Northern Ireland. This agreement also allows the Boston College community access to the Linen Hall Library collections, including the world's foremost comprehensive collection relating to the "Troubles" of Northern Ireland and Ireland.

Time Periods (Subject Approach)
The selection of materials reflects an interest in all historical time periods, from pre-Celtic civilization to the present day.

Date of Publication
The library aims for completeness in acquiring all newly-published materials in the humanities, fine arts, and social sciences. Retrospective purchases are made annually, toward the goal of comprehensive historical coverage.

Subject Areas Collected by Library of Congress Classification Number
BCAT, the online catalog, can be searched by LC classification number to get a better idea of what specific titles the Irish studies collection contains.  For example, the command c=DA900 will produce the beginning of a list of works on Irish history.  This list can be browsed by pressing the F8 key or typing f and pressing the Enter/Return key.