Library Publications
A Grand Parade: Memories of Cork City Libraries: 1855-2005 / ed. Liam Ronayne, written by John Mullins and Liam Ronayne. Cork: Cork City Council, 2005. ISBN 0954984722. Price €10.00.
A Grand Parade was published in December 2005, as the final contribution of Cork City Libraries to Cork 2005 European Capital of Culture, and to mark the 150th anniversary year of the passing of the first Public Libraries (Ireland) Act in 1855. Cork city was the first Irish city to adopt this Act. Providing an outline history of Cork City Libraries since their foundation in 1892, the book includes a selection of interesting memoirs from the last ninety years from members of the public and from staff. The book contains many photographs, showing the development of services across the decades, as well as images and accounts of a selection of activities, people, and buildings.
A summary history and full PDF version of this history is also available on this web site.
William Dunlea: The Voice of Erin / written by Jim McKeon. Cork: Cork City Libraries 2008. ISBN 0954984749.
Jim McKeon’s biography of William “Wallou” Dunlea, examines Wallou’s early life, from growing up in the lanes of Blackpool in the north side of Cork city, on to the family’s Republican sympathies, as well as his singing career from his earliest days, through to his singing success in his native Cork, to his BBC broadcasts from London, and through his concerts in America where he became known as “the Voice of Erin”. This publication is illustrated with reproductions of photographs, programmes, posters and newspaper clippings.
The book also outlines some of Dunlea’s other interests, such as, playing music on the accordion and other instruments, road bowl playing, painting, and his strong support for Glen Rovers Hurling Club.
Our Friend Ethel Lilian Boole/Voynich by E. Taratuta. Translated by Séamus Ó Coigligh. 2008.
Cork-born writer, musician, and revolutionary, Ethel Lilian Boole, who died in 1960, was the youngest daughter of George Boole, mathematics professor at Queen’s College (now University College), Cork. Her first novel, The Gadfly, published in 1897 under her Polish husband’s surname Voynich, was immediately popular in America and Britain before millions of copies in translation were sold east of the Iron Curtain. Séamus Ó Coigligh translated Evgenia Taratuta’s Russian booklet (1957) on the life and work of Ethel Lilian Boole/Voynich. Cork City Libraries and the Boole Library in University College Cork made Séamus Ó Coigligh’s translation and his additional notes available digitally through their online catalogues in 2008, coinciding with the translator’s ninety-second birthday.
Download PDF of Our Friend Ethel Lilian Boole/Voynich
The Lonely Voice by Frank O’Connor. Cork: Cork City Council, 2003.
ISBN 0902282093. Price €7.99
The Lonely Voice: a study of the short story endures as a classic work on the short story genre. First published in 1962, the work represents O’Connor’s philosophy on the technique of the short story and his opinions on some of the great short-story writers such as Chekhov and Maupassant. Cork born writer Frank O’Connor is regarded as one of Ireland’s best writers of the twentieth century and has a world-wide reputation for his short stories.
Principles of Freedom by Terence MacSwiney. Cork: Cork City Council, 2005.
ISBN 0954984706. Price €9.99
The book is based on a series of articles written by Terence MacSwiney for the Irish Freedom journal, between 1912 and 1916, and posthumously published in book form in 1921. Author and politician, he was at the heart of the Irish cultural revival at the beginning of the twentieth century in his native Cork. He helped to form the Cork Celtic Literary Society and wrote numerous poems and articles for the Society’s journal and, with Daniel Corkery, founded the Cork Dramatic Society, writing plays such as The Revolutionist, The Holocaust, and The Warriors of Coole.
The Bones of Us. Cork: Cork City Council / Cork Anti-Poverty Resource Network, 2005.
ISBN 0954984707. Price €9.99
In this collection, sixteen people active in the communities of the north side of Cork city have put pen to paper and produced a beautiful book of prose and poetry. Written by students from the Write Together Centre, the book captures the essence of a particular place in a particular time. This was published as an initiative under the Cork 2005 programme between Cork City Libraries and Write Together.