Sorry to see the passing of the artist Anne Madden. This image is of an interview she did with Eileen Battersby in 'The Irish Times', photo by Frank Miller, 27 Nov 1997. Press cuttings from the Michael D. Higgins Collection.

Also on @rtebrainstorm.bsky.social is this deep dive into the history of Children's Television in Ireland. Materials here include Eamon de Buitléar archive, who made 'Luidin Mac Lu' and 'Amuigh Faoin Spéir'. & Carolyn Swift archive who wrote Fortycoats, Bosco and more! www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

The lead image on this new article on the tradition of the Mummers, Wren Boys, and Straw Boys is from our Ritchie - Pickow archive a beautiful photo from Lios Buí Kilnamartry, Macroom Co Cork, in 1952 www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

A short history of mummers, straw boys and Wren Boys. From mummers to wren boys, the practice of rambling from house to house in rural Ireland lifted isolation for many communities at Christmas, writes @barryhoulihan.bsky.social @uniofgalway.bsky.social www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

Archive material from recent display on the life and work of artist Brian Bourke. Items from a range of collections here including Druid Theatre archive and Galway International Arts Festival archive.

To wrap up the #ExploreYourArchive focus week, we are sharing a festive item from our collections. This is a 1938 sales catalogue of personalised Christmas greeting cards sold by Royal Renaissance Art Christmas Cards. #EYAYourArchives @exploreyourarchive.bsky.social @araireland.bsky.social

2025 marked the anniversaries of the opening (1895) & closing (1935) of the Galway-Clifden railway. Arthur J. Balfour's album documents the railway's construction. The Balfour album is fully digitised: digital.library.universityofgalway.ie/p/ms/categor... #EYAAnniversaries #ExploreYourArchive

#BookLaunch - Young Offenders: Children and crime in Ireland, 1850–1908 by Geraldine Curtin Geraldine Curtin is a Library Assistant working in our Archives & Special Collections dept, we asked her what inspired her to write her 2nd book: hardimanlibrary.blogspot.com/2025/12/book... #19thcentury

Today's #ExploreYourArchive theme is #EYAInclusion At the 2024 launch of the Mincéirs Archive of Irish Travellers, Dr Mary Warde Moriarty shows a photo of her father, Edward Warde, held in the collection Credit: Aengus McMahon, August 2024 @exploreyourarchive.bsky.social @araireland.bsky.social

We’re proud to hold a range of #EYADigital collections: photos, documents, audio, video and born-digital material. Today we’re highlighting the Imirce Project, which shares thousands of Irish emigrant letters and life stories. Explore it here: imirce.universityofgalway.ie/p/ms #ExploreYourArchive

The Boy Who Drew Cats from the Ringling North collection. Lafcadio Hearn, in The Boy Who Drew Cats, retells a Japanese folk tale and explores themes of creativity and individuality. #EYAPets #ExploreYourArchive

Some more #EYAPets in our archives! Siobhán McKenna's dogs, a terrier called Pegeen Mike, and her beloved elkhound, Rory. After Rory passed away, a friend of Siobhán's wrote this tribute to him. #ExploreYourArchive @araireland.bsky.social @exploreyourarchive.bsky.social

Today's #ExploreYourArchive theme is #EYAPets From his Presidential archive, a photograph of Michael D. Higgins, President of Ireland, with his friend Richard Kearney and his family, along with his two dogs Bród and Misneach, 31 Jan 2016. @araireland.bsky.social @exploreyourarchive.bsky.social

Colonel Sauerzweig’s arrangement and translation of 'Silent Night' from the Conradh na Gaeilge archive🌟 Humming beneath the melody, the lower voices in the quartet set a quiet, peaceful tone that fits today’s #ExploreYourArchive theme of #EYASilence @araireland.bsky.social @cnagaeilge.bsky.social

Library Ireland Week is here! #LIW25 Our restored An Tiomna Nuadh shows how libraries and conservation work light the way by ensuring rare and fragile books last for future readers. Read more about the conservation process in our latest blog post 📚 nuigarchives.blogspot.com/2025/11/our-...

Wishing all at @kennysbookshop.bsky.social warm wishes celebrating 85 years at the heart of Galway books, art, and more. This archives Kenny's brochure even included a map of the original shop on High Street!

Today's #ExploreYourArchive theme is #EYAMedieval Some of the oldest books in our collections are these volumes of Bible commentary by Nicholas of Lyra (c. 1270-1349), printed in 1497 by Anton Koberger, printer of the Nuremberg Chronicle. @araireland.bsky.social @exploreyourarchive.bsky.social

Siobhán McKenna's collection of 1950s Vogue magazines including a feature on Siobhán and her family, and plenty of ads for nylon tights. A snapshot of beauty in the 1950s! #EYABeauty #ExploreYourArchive

Last week, we welcomed back An Tiomna Nuadh, the 1602 Irish translation of The New Testament. After undergoing major conservation work in the Muckross Bookbindery in Killarney, An Tiomna Nuadh has returned in much better condition. Look at the transformation! #EYAConservation #ExploreYourArchive

A batch of Republican newspapers from the early 20th century currently under processing, dating from 1916 to late 1920s.

We are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Margaretta D’Arcy—playwright,activist,artist & a fearless advocate for peace, justice & equality. Her archive, donated with that of her late husband John Arden in 2017, is a vital record of their lifelong work, Beannacht Dé leí. tinyurl.com/5n8y88pm

Last Friday, @universityofgalway.bsky.social marked @druidtheatre.bsky.social 50th anniversary with a special symposium, new book launch & a new exhibition of materials from the Druid archive. Exhibition is located in the Hardiman Foyer & open to ALL. @uniofgalwayasc.bsky.social #druid50 #theatre

The first librarian of Queen's College Galway, James Hardiman, died on this day, November 13, 1855. Read the lovely article in the @galwayadvertiser.bsky.social today marking the anniversary of his death and legacy. www.advertiser.ie/galway/artic... #hardiman #universitycollegegalway #historian

The lost art of letter writing. Stamps from around the world on archive letters under cataloguing - India and South Africa to Ireland.

With all pets in the Áras in recent years, the first President of Ireland, Douglas Hyde, was also a great animal lover, with cats, dogs, horses, and more at his Ffrenchpark home in Roscommon, including these two presidential pooches. (From Hyde family photo album) #Archives @araukie.bsky.social

Last week, @uniofgalway.bsky.social marked our 50th anniversary with a symposium, 'Druid at 50: People, Place, Performance', organised by the Dept of Drama and Theatre Studies, and the opening of a Druid archive exhibition at @uniofgalwaylib.bsky.social @uniofgalwayasc.bsky.social.

On Presidential Inauguration day today - looking back to before he was Ireland's first president, Douglas Hyde, academic, linguistic, toured the US giving talks. This scrapbook collects the US coverage of Hyde's visit to the US in 1906.

Taispéantas fíor-speisialta ag tarlú inniu sa Leabharlann! @druidtheatre A very special exhibition is happening today in the Library! @druidtheatre @uniofgalwayasc.bsky.social #archives #theatrearchives #druidtheatre #exhibitionspace

For culture night, the start of a paper delivered by President's Michael D. Higgins to Trinity Historical Society on the worthiness of the arts in the 21st century.

Our recent launch of digitised prison journals from Long Kesh in the 1970s - the Paddy McMenamin archive - was featured on the Sean Moncrieff Show on @newstalkfm.bsky.social . Listen back here with archivist Dr. Barry Houlihan in conversation with Sean: www.newstalk.com/podcasts/hig...

One of the great things about Galway is how our colleagues @uniofgalwayasc.bsky.social are constantly putting out amazing materials, almost without us noticing. This week it's a collection of prisoner journals from Long Kesh prison in the 1970s. digital.library.universityofgalway.ie/p/ms/categor...

Stamps and postmarks on letters from Uganda and Romania, early 1990s.... The art of letter writing.

University of Galway launches digital archive of Long Kesh journals www.universityofgalway.ie/about-us/new... @araireland.bsky.social @historyatgalway.bsky.social

Tuesday evening openings are back! Open until 8 each Tuesday evening. Getting the Michael D Higgins collection listed, wonderful drafts and research notes from his receipt of a Doctorate of Laws at NUI Galway on 23 January 2012.

Such a pleasure to chat to @lynettefay.bsky.social for #MusicAtMaddens Podcast on my musical life, my work as an archivist @uniofgalwayasc.bsky.social working on Mary Robinson archive and the work of FairPlé . Massive thanks to Maddens Bar, Belfast youtu.be/IAsS1FpLpsY?...

University of Galway launches digital archive of Long Kesh journals www.universityofgalway.ie/about-us/new... @araireland.bsky.social @historyatgalway.bsky.social

Recently we had the pleasure of launching the Oral History Archive of the Irish Showpeople - collecting and recording memories of lives spent in Irish travelling shows, circus, fairgrounds and more: www.universityofgalway.ie/about-us/new...

The @uniofgalwayasc.bsky.social has unveiled the Paddy McMenamin Collection, a digital archive of prison journals from Long Kesh internment camp in the 1970s Read more about the collection here: www.universityofgalway.ie/about-us/new... @historyatgalway.bsky.social #irishhistory #northernireland

Tá Bailiúchán Paddy McMenamin, cartlann dhigiteach d’irisí príosúin ó champa coinneála Long Kesh sna 1970idí, seolta ag @uniofgalwayasc.bsky.social @historyatgalway.bsky.social Tuilleadh anseo: www.universityofgalway.ie/about-us/new... #stairnaheireann #TuaisceartÉireann

Following the recent launch of the Oral History of the Irish Showpeople, Archivist Dr. Barry Houlihan spoke with RTÉ Liveline to talk about the project, joined by Harry McFadden and Marion Daniels King who spoke about the memories of their lives and experiences. www.rte.ie/radio/radio1...

Recently we had the pleasure of launching the Oral History Archive of the Irish Showpeople - collecting and recording memories of lives spent in Irish travelling shows, circus, fairgrounds and more: www.universityofgalway.ie/about-us/new...

Wonderful to have a small display of items from the Freyer collection at the Freyer Surgical Symposium 2025, introducing the archive to a new generation of surgeons. Thank you to the Discipline of Surgery.

Join us this Thursday for a special free event as part of Heritage Week 2025: 'Voices of the Showmen' - launching a new oral history archive of circus and showmen's guild with our partners ISACS - with the project funded by @heritagecouncil.ie : isacs.ie/event/voices...

Join us this Thursday for a special free event as part of Heritage Week 2025: 'Voices of the Showmen' - launching a new oral history archive of circus and showmen's guild with our partners ISACS - with the project funded by @heritagecouncil.ie : isacs.ie/event/voices...

More from our oral history archive of the Galway International Arts Festival - Australian artist Patricia Piccinini has brought her unique artworks to the skies of Galway as well as the Festival Gallery with 'Skywhale' and 'We Travel Together' digital.library.universityofgalway.ie/p/ms/asset/9...

Our oral history archive of Galway International Arts Festival captures the process, work, and ideas of the festival artists in their own words. Here is recording with playwright Enda Walsh: digital.library.universityofgalway.ie/p/ms/asset/8... @uniofgalway.bsky.social @uniofgalwaylib.bsky.social

6 highlights from the Galway Arts Festival back pages. @barryhoulihan.bsky.social @uniofgalwaylib.bsky.social looks at some of the favourites featured in the festival’s oral history project www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

From first producing Synge as part of their first ever season in 1975 to tonight's opening performance of 'Riders To The Sea', along with 'Macbeth', we send best wishes to all at @druidtheatre.bsky.social and a Happy 50th Birthday!

The Galway International Arts Festival 2025 is in full flow! We've been building a new digital oral history archive of the Festival and its artists. You can read more about it as well as the past Festival archive we hold in this new article on @rtebrainstorm.bsky.social www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

Summer has officially arrived in Galway when the Galway International Arts Festival gets underway! The GIAF archive is filled with festival memories and events from across the decades, documenting two packed weeks of GIAF each year.