Some big ol' hand coloured railway survey maps today.... one simply coloured by county and one coloured by staff at the Geological Survey in 1877.

Luggala, good company and a thermos full of sausages: a happy St Patrick's Day!

How? It is just a boring book by a terrible person. I despair.

We were delighted to facilitate the loan of John Templeton MRIA's manuscript catalogue of native Irish plants to @ulstermuseum.org You can read more about the manuscript in our recent blog www.ria.ie/blog/the-cat... 🧵

Looking forward to speaking about Cardigans & Communications 🧶🤳

Compositors and printers, ahoy!

Sigh. Those who do not want to think for themselves will soon make it impossible for those of us who do.

"...bless the power of the sun, its conspiracy with the underground..." - The Seed, Paula Meehan.

What a gorgeous collection and an amazing journey it has been on! @ullibrary.bsky.social youtu.be/WUnBO7NfJz0?...

TCD Library is recruiting a Senior Bibliographer to help catalogue the Fagel Collection! This is a fabulous professional opportunity to work on one of Europe's great early modern private libraries. Closing 10 March at noon. Full details available at www.tcd.ie/hr/vacancies

The succession of the Roman Catholic bishops of Cloyne and Ross was not thrilling enough to take Miss Bourke off this dreamy annotator's mind... @nlireland.bsky.social is still as romantic as ever 🥰

Bluesky debut for the most clever thing I ever thought of, and which I now share every year on #PancakeDay.

The Worth Library's Research Fellowships for 2026 have just been advertised. Find out more at edwardworthlibrary.ie/research-fel... Please repost! @bodleian.ox.ac.uk @cerl-community.bsky.social @britishlibrary.bsky.social @wellcometrust.bsky.social @harvard.edu

Best pen trial ever. ‘Kiss my Arse’ On the endpapers of an 1700 edition of Terence’s comediae sex. #bookhistory #provenance

There is a wonderful exhibition on at Farmleigh at the moment until March - now is your chance to hear from the curator! All welcome to attend the lecture, not just LAI members! @marshslibrary.bsky.social AND a cataloguing course for rare books later in the month!

Had a lovely evening at this launch of this book last night! Jacobites, prison escapes, and kidnapped princesses - what's not to love?

For the weekend that's in it, why not read a Life of St Brigid, or, Betha Brigte. An Leabhar Breac (RIA MS 23 P 16) contains a copy of the Life on starting on p. 61. You can see the "incipit" (Latin for "beginning") outlined in red pigment here, with Brigte spilling over from one line onto another.

The Manuscript of the Week is RIA MS B ii 1, Astronomical tract. It is based on a medieval Latin version of a work by Messahalah, a Jew of Alexandria who wrote in Arabic c. 815. The frontispiece is an astronomical rotula with a moveable index attached, illuminated with red and yellow pigment...

Hello Bluesky!

Did you know that Burns Library holds a collection of photographs and albums belonging to Irish activist, printer, and camogie player Máire Gill? They live in our Loretta Clarke Murray Collection and we’ve just digitized them! https://findingaids.bc.edu/repositories/2/resources/254/digitized

Just watched the new Knives Out and I think it's really important you know that the scene in the Seminary's Gym is filmed in the same place Rick Astley filmed the music video for Never Gonna Give You Up. I saw the window tracery and immediately made my friends pause the film so I could tell them.

Irish manuscripts and book conservators getting a two-page spread in @irishtimes.com 🙌 Up with that sort of thing!

27th December is the feast of St John Apostle and Evangelist who is depicted here. #StJohn Trinity College Dublin, IE TCD MS 60; Book of Mulling (Irish picket gospel book); between c.750 CE-799 CE; Tech-Moling, County Carlow, Ireland; ff.81v-82r @tcdlibrary.bsky.social

A Christmas miracle! I have tracked down a copy of Battersby's auction catalogue for the Earl of Leitrim's library, which I will visit in @nlireland.bsky.social next year. Sometimes all you need for Christmas is to know if a particular dead guy once owned and annotated the book you are holding.

The MS of the week is RIA MS D ii 1, the Book of Uí Mhaine. This late 14th century manuscript contains a late Middle Irish versified form of the 17 Wonders of the Night of Christ’s Birth. This apocryphal tradition includes miracles such as fruiting vines in the middle of winter🍇

That's a very charming piece of Dublin history.

"At a briefing this evening, the White House said Mr Trump does not want to execute members of Congress." Good to have the clarity there. Everything is fine, I'm sure.

In this blog, we uncover new information about the provenance of the RIA Library's Haliday Pamphlet and Tract Collections. Charles Haliday MRIA (1789?-1866) was a 19th C book collector whose extraordinary collection of over 25,000 pamphlets is house in RIA Library. www.ria.ie/blog/notes-o...

Not up to the standard of the famous mushroom guy, but these are pretty cool in my parents' garden in Carlow.

Completed his studies in Ireland's finest, most learned county! That is Carlow, to those Philistines who weren't aware. 🇲🇱

Come along to hear this fantastic lineup speaking about one of the most important issues facing our sector!!

An unwilling part, I'd imagine, if you could ask the reindeer. But it's a very cool acquisition.

Cornwall and owlets, what's not to love?

A fun little piece I did on Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, with some interesting snippets from the RIA collection, for your delectation!

I can only conclude that the format will be Agatha Christie-style and that one more Westlifer must die each night. Weren't there more of them??

This is how you blurb

A last visit to @nmireland.bsky.social Words on the Wave to see the third opening of the St Gall gospels. Not my boy St John, but still, not too shabby. Also revisiting a relic label we studied in my palaeography class & one of the world's most famous library catalogues. 😍 Farewell, Swiss friends!

Having a cracking day with @annewelsh.bsky.social on this training! One of the many pleasures of being the secretary of the @laibluesky.bsky.social Rare Books Group...

You've got just over an hour to get here for this!

The manuscript of the week is RIA MS 23 P 26, the Book of Fenagh. This 16th century manuscript is mainly a revision of an older Book of St Caillín which no longer survives. The mark the manuscript’s 500th anniversary in 2016, an online exhibition was created and two lunchtime lectures were delivered

All the learning! Hurray! 🙌

Dublin, sure you're only gorgeous.

Discover how libraries are helping the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland to recover Ireland's history. Join us for a lecture with Dr Sarah Hendriks and see the RIA Library's physical exhibition. 3pm, Wednesday 8 October. Visit https://www.ria.ie/events/ for booking @virtualtreasury.bsky.social

We've had a great month of provenance adventuring with Madeline and I can't wait to share more soon!

By consulting the English Short Title Catalogue, and assuming the mindset of a Victorian, scissor-wielding lunatic, I have at last figured out what imprint I am looking at... another win for pedantic cataloguers everywhere!

À demain!

I had read about the similarity between the Hereford Gospels and some of the St. Gallen manuscripts, but WOW. Look at those swirls! So grateful for the opportunity to go see Words on the Wave last Friday.

Not sure if the cataloguing shaming here is more inspiring or terrifying.

✨ Culture Night at the Royal Irish Academy ✨ Step inside this Georgian gem and explore the Library Reading Room, where the earliest example of Irish writing, the 6th century Cathach will be on display 📜. Find out more: https://culturenight.ie/event/culture-night-at-the-royal-irish-academy/