1. At the Irish Jesuit Archives, I am taking the first tentative steps in investigating digital preservation.

    Aim: Ensure that born-digital material in the Irish Jesuit Archives is secure and preserved for the future. (Setting myself quite a challenge, and determined not going to use Rothenberg quote!)

    What are the constraints? Lone archivist, some ICT knowledge, no survey of digital material, no finance, no ‘real’ digital preservation experience…

    Plan: Firstly, I am going to try and read as much as possible and document (on openoffice) what I have read and how to implement some of what I have learnt. I will post further ramblings here.

    1. Fifty Digital Preservation Activities you can do via Library of Congress @ndipp
    2. Preserving (Digital) Objects with Restricted Resources
    3. Digital archiving in Ireland: national survey of the humanities and social sciences via Digital Repository of Ireland @dri_ireland
    4. What I wish I know before I started via Digital Preservation Coalition
    5. Getting Started in Digital Preservation via Digital Preservation Coalition
    6. future Arch = traditional archives + digital archives @ the Bod
    7. Digital Preservation via Library of Congress @ndipp and The Signal blog
    8. “Intro to Digital Preservation #1 - Preservation Planning and Overview of PREMIS for Beginners” via the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries 
    9. Future Proof - Protecting our digital future via @FutureProofNSW

  2. image

    Rathfarnham Castle, which dates from the Elizabethan times, is probably the earliest example of what is termed a “fortified house” built in Ireland. One hundred years ago this May, the Jesuits purchased Rathfarnham Castle as a residence and house of studies for their university students. They sold the house in 1985.

    image

    A seismograph was built at Rathfarnham Castle by Fr. William O’ Leary in 1916. In 1932, a Milne-Shaw seismograph (above) was obtained to replace the ‘O Leary seismograph’. Further Info 

    On Friday, 10th May at Rathfarnham Castle, Simon Loftus will read from his new book entitled ‘The Invention of Memory: An Irish Family Scrapbook 1560 - 1934’. Adam Loftus arrived in Dublin in 1560 and built the original Rathfarnham Castle.  

    Rathfarnham Historical Society will meet on Thursday 23 May 2013 at 8 p.m. in the Church of Ireland Parish Centre, Rathfarnham village. A lecture, titled Rathfarnham Castle Demesne will be given by Rebecca Jeffares. All welcome. Admission for non-members: 4 euro.

     

  3. Over the Easter period, I was privileged to follow ‘In the Footsteps of Ignatius’ and spend five days in Loyola, Spain. Visits included the Loyola family’s Tower House - the Holy House, Loyola Basilica, the Onati caves at Arrikrutz, Arantzazu, Pamplona and Xavier Castle.

    image

    On my return, I have come across a souvenir book (image above of Loyola, c.1894) entitled ‘The Ignatian Album’ (1894), printed and published by Guy & Co. Ltd, 114 George Street, Limerick and presented to Fr. Patrick Keating SJ, on the occasion of him becoming Provincial of the Irish Province, by Fr. Francis Daly SJ, Mungret College, Limerick, (20 January 1895).

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    Loyola, March 2013.

  4. A book entitled ‘The Man Called James Corboy: Irish Jesuit Bishop of Monze, Zambia’ written by Sr. Catherine Dunne SHM was launched by Father Provincial Tom Layden SJ at Milltown Park on Thursday, 24 January 2013. James Corboy was born at Brookville, Caherconlish, county Limerick, 20 October 1916. Educated at the Crescent and Clongowes, he entered the society in 1935 and was ordained in 1948. He was consecrated Bishop of Monze, 24 June 1962. He retired as bishop in 1992, returned to Ireland in 1996 and died in Dublin, 24 November 2004. His body was returned for burial in Zambia in 2005. Clicking on the image of the book or here takes you to a flickr set of images of Bishop Corboy.

    A book entitled ‘The Man Called James Corboy: Irish Jesuit Bishop of Monze, Zambia’ written by Sr. Catherine Dunne SHM was launched by Father Provincial Tom Layden SJ at Milltown Park on Thursday, 24 January 2013.

    James Corboy was born at Brookville, Caherconlish, county Limerick, 20 October 1916. Educated at the Crescent and Clongowes, he entered the society in 1935 and was ordained in 1948. He was consecrated Bishop of Monze, 24 June 1962. He retired as bishop in 1992, returned to Ireland in 1996 and died in Dublin, 24 November 2004. His body was returned for burial in Zambia in 2005.

    Clicking on the image of the book or here takes you to a flickr set of images of Bishop Corboy.

  5. Coláiste Iognáid, Galway, formerly known as St. Ignatius College, celebrates its sesquicentenary in 2013. As part of this celebration, Fr. Brendan McManus SJ is collating photographs relating to the history of St. Ignatius Church, Sea Road, Galway.

    The Irish Jesuit Archives possesses two letters from Ruth Dromgoole, Department of Education, National Museum of Ireland (March 1946 and February 1950) in which she sought information on a medal in the museum’s possession, as she was preparing a catalogue of a collection of medals. On both occasions, she enclosed descriptions and rubbings. Description:

    JESUIT COLLEGE, GALWAY, C.1865 (R.I.A. 144)

    Obverse: ‘View in perspective of church. Above, COLLEGIUM S. IGNATI SOC. JESU GALVIENSE. In exergue A.M.D.G. Signed, J. WOODHOUSE A R H A.’; Reverse: ‘Across, PRIZE MEDAL enclosed in sprays of oak-leaves and acorns, ends crossed and tied. Above, Imperial crown. Around, a circle of egg and ornament. Diam. 2.55”. Bronze. By John Woodhouse. Serrated rim.’

    The only difference between her description of the medal in the National Museum and that in the Irish Jesuit Archives is that the medal in the archives is dated 1876, and has been awarded for Athletic Sports. There is a faint name under the spray of oak leaves and acorns, which I have yet to decipher. 

  6. A curator from the Hong Kong Antiquities and Monuments Office was researching in the archives this week, previously having attended the 14th International Conference of the European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists (EurASEAA) at University College Dublin School of Archaeology, September 2012.

    His interest lay in the previously unseen letters and photographs sent from Hong Kong to Ireland by Fr. Daniel Finn SJ, lecturer in geography at the University of Hong Kong. Fr. Finn was a pioneering archaeologist in Hong Kong from 1927 - 1936. He describes his pottery and stone finds from the Chalcolithic period in ‘Archaeological finds on Lamma Island near Hong Kong’. Fr. Finn died in London in 1936 after returning from an international conference on archaeology in Oslo where he represented the university and government of Hong Kong.

    Subsequently, the archaeological finds of Fr. Finn were displayed in the University of Hong Kong. During World War Two, the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong threatened their existence. The Japanese began to confiscate the collection but the fact that Ricci Hall belonged to the Irish Jesuits, not the University, meant that Irish neutrality saved the collection.

    Daniel Finn was born in Cork in 1886 and was educated at PBC. He was a talented student, earning first place in the preparatory grade in Ireland in 1896 and first place in Latin, French, German and Italian. At sixteen he entered the Jesuits. At eighteen he won first place in the Classical Scholarship Examination at the Royal University. He studied archaeology at University College, Dublin and at Oxford. During World War One he was banished from the Tirol on Italy’s entry into the war. His fluency in languages extended to Irish, Hebrew, Hungarian and Chinese.

  7. The Archive Awareness Campaign 2012 will be launched tonight, 16 August, at Newman House, 85/86 St. Stephens Green, Dublin. The theme is Sports, Games and the Olympics. The purpose of the campaign is to encourage participation in archive events; increase awareness and the use of archives among existing, new and different users.

    Photographs from the Irish Jesuit Archives will be uploaded every day on flickr to celebrate the Archive Awareness Campaign. The images date from 1882 - 1970 and are taken from Coláiste Iognáid, Galway; Crescent Comprehensive, Limerick; Mungret College, Limerick; Clongowes Wood College, Kildare; Gonzaga College, Dublin; Belvedere College, Dublin; St. Ignatius College, Sydney, Australia and Zambia.

    A full list of Archive Awareness in Ireland events can be found here & on flickr.

  8. A photographic album found recently in a basement in a Jesuit residence, Dublin, Ireland, highlights the connections between Jesuits in Ireland and Australia. Irish Jesuits arrived in Australia in 1865 and Australia became a mission of the Irish Province until 1950. This album by Sidney Riley Studios, Queen Street, Brisbane, Australia contains views of the interior and exterior of St. Ignatius’ Church, Toowong, Brisbane, Australia. St. Ignatius’ Church/School, was opened by Dr James Duhig, Archbishop of Brisbane, 18 May 1930. The Jesuit in the image is either Fr. Richard Murphy SJ or Robert Little SJ. History of St Ignatius SchoolSt Ignatius ParishIrish Jesuit Archives images of Church/School

    A photographic album found recently in a basement in a Jesuit residence, Dublin, Ireland, highlights the connections between Jesuits in Ireland and Australia. Irish Jesuits arrived in Australia in 1865 and Australia became a mission of the Irish Province until 1950. This album by Sidney Riley Studios, Queen Street, Brisbane, Australia contains views of the interior and exterior of St. Ignatius’ Church, Toowong, Brisbane, Australia. St. Ignatius’ Church/School, was opened by Dr James Duhig, Archbishop of Brisbane, 18 May 1930. The Jesuit in the image is either Fr. Richard Murphy SJ or Robert Little SJ.

    History of St Ignatius School
    St Ignatius Parish
    Irish Jesuit Archives images of Church/School

  9. A tweet by @katymilligan on twitter that the 1915 RHA Annual Exhibition was in aid of the Belgian Relief Fund provided the spark for me to check out IJA/ADMN/3/7.

    The documents in IJA/ADMN/3/7 relate to the Belgian refugees who arrived in Ireland (1914 - 1915) as a consequence of the First World War. Initially, Irish Jesuits were asked by the Local Government Board (17 October 1914) to go down to the North Wall at 7.30am on the 18th and meet the 100 Belgian refugees.  This was due to ‘a few of your Order, who speak Flemish’.  Subsequently, the Irish Provincial became a member of the Distribution Committee which looked after the welfare and distribution of refugees arriving in Ireland. The majority of the documents relate to offers to house refugees and schemes to aid them, both physically and spiritually.

    Back to the tweet…there are letters from Philippa M. Lawless, 2 Mountjoy Square to Father Nolan (October 1914) suggesting ‘a scheme of mine which might prove of use to our Belgian refugees’: ‘Irish Art exhibition of Paintings…where it is proposed to give half of proceeds to Belgian refugees in Ireland’.

    The modern day incarnation of working with refugees is undertaken by the Jesuit Refugee Service Ireland www.jrs.ie

  10. Eye of the Storm Seismology and archives are present in Siobhán McDonald’s new work, ‘Eye of the Storm’, which launches tomorrow at the Galway Arts Centre.  ‘She explores the idea of studying ‘nature’ for this exhibition and employs geology as a language to conceive an understanding of time and our relationship to a constantly evolving environment, juxtaposing new artworks in poetic relation with historical and geological artefacts. Early 20th century Jesuit seismograms, from Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies (DIAS), The School of Cosmic Physics, and a series of newly realised works- drawings, paintings, sculpture, video and sound works - consider and reflect on the volcano, history, technology and mans’ recordings of events, as they interconnect with human experience through the physicality of the surrounding landmass.’ Irish Jesuits have influenced the field of seismology and astronomy in Ireland and abroad, particularly in the twentieth century. Men such as: Henry Gill - ‘Experiments with Spinning Tops to illustrate earthquake reactions’; William O’ Leary - established Mungret and Rathfarnham Observatories; Edward Pigot - pioneered seismology in observatories in China, Samoa, Tonga and founded Riverview Observatory, Sydney; Daniel O’ Connell - Director of the Vatican Observatory and the ‘O’ Connell Effect’, Noel Burke Gaffney - Riverview Observatory, Sydney, ‘The seismological and related aspects of the 1954 hydrogen boom explosion’, his brother Michael Walter who has an observatory named after him at Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and in Ireland, Richard Ingram and P.M Troddyn. Galway Arts Centre Siobhan McDonald Scientists of the shaking earth Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies Irish Jesuit Archives flickr

    Eye of the Storm

    Seismology and archives are present in Siobhán McDonald’s new work, ‘Eye of the Storm’, which launches tomorrow at the Galway Arts Centre.  ‘She explores the idea of studying ‘nature’ for this exhibition and employs geology as a language to conceive an understanding of time and our relationship to a constantly evolving environment, juxtaposing new artworks in poetic relation with historical and geological artefacts. Early 20th century Jesuit seismograms, from Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies (DIAS), The School of Cosmic Physics, and a series of newly realised works- drawings, paintings, sculpture, video and sound works - consider and reflect on the volcano, history, technology and mans’ recordings of events, as they interconnect with human experience through the physicality of the surrounding landmass.’

    Irish Jesuits have influenced the field of seismology and astronomy in Ireland and abroad, particularly in the twentieth century. Men such as: Henry Gill - ‘Experiments with Spinning Tops to illustrate earthquake reactions’; William O’ Leary - established Mungret and Rathfarnham Observatories; Edward Pigot - pioneered seismology in observatories in China, Samoa, Tonga and founded Riverview Observatory, Sydney; Daniel O’ Connell - Director of the Vatican Observatory and the ‘O’ Connell Effect’, Noel Burke Gaffney - Riverview Observatory, Sydney, ‘The seismological and related aspects of the 1954 hydrogen boom explosion’, his brother Michael Walter who has an observatory named after him at Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and in Ireland, Richard Ingram and P.M Troddyn.

    Galway Arts Centre

    Siobhan McDonald

    Scientists of the shaking earth

    Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies

    Irish Jesuit Archives flickr