Published in Boston in the summer of 1845, Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave caused an immediate sensation. Denounced as a ‘catalogue of lies’ by newspapers in the slavery-supporting South, it was praised in the North as the ‘most thrilling work which the American press has ever issued—and the most important’. … Read more
Thomas Willis was a Dublin apothecary who was involved in various charitable activities throughout his life, such as the foundation of the Society of St Vincent de Paul in Ireland. He was based in St Michan’s parish, just behind Ormond Quay and in 1845 he published a survey of the parish that examined it it … Read more
Robert Owen’s visit to Ireland represented an important effort to attract government support for his ‘Village Scheme’ (see sidebar). A select committee would soon meet to investigate the prevailing distress, and Owen, hoping he might give evidence, as he had on child labour, set about familiarising himself with Ireland. From October 1822 to April 1823 … Read more
The Lockout centenary inevitably focuses attention on Dublin’s tenement slums, but urban poverty is nothing new. Amongst the copious holdings of Marsh’s LIbrary are a small collection of papers relating to one of the less salubrious institutions of eighteenth-century Dublin: its workhouse (MS Z.3.1.1, 143-55). … Read more
In August 1838 the English artist William Evans of Eton (1798-1877) visited Connemara, and recorded what he saw in a collection of 41 watercolours. Having been acquired by the National Gallery in 2008, the collection is currently on display for the first time in its entirety. When Evans made his journey, Connemara was in the … Read more