A Gift of Friendship:
The Gareth and Janet Dunleavy Collection of Irish History and Literature
The Collection A - B C - D E - R S - Z
Essay on Irish Bulls. By Richard Lovell Edgeworth and Maria Edgeworth. Second Edition, corrected. London: Printed for J. Johnson, 1803. Bound by T, Goddard, Bookseller.
Maria Edgeworth who wrote this work with her father, Richard, described her parent's contribution to the work in her own letters. She wrote, "The notes on Dublin's shoeblacks' metaphorical language are chiefly his . . . He excelled in imitating the Irish, because he never overstepped the modesty or assurance of nature. He marked exquisitely the happy coincidence, the shrewd wit of the people, without condescending to produce effect by caricature. He knew not only their comic talents. but their powers of pathos . . . "
According to the Essay, A "bull" is a speech or behavioral blunder that provides much of the expressiveness and color of the Irish language. A "bull" refers to "a superfluity of wit and metaphor" mixed with "keen satire."
Bound in full brown leather, with spine gilt lettering and decorations with red leather label.
Esther Waters. By George Moore. London: Privately Printed for Subscribers Only by Cumann Seaneolais na h-Eireann, 1920.
This edition consists of 750 numbered and signed copies, this is no. 380. The bookplate mounted on the free front endpaper reads, "Greetings to Janet . . . from Maureen and Don."
Faction. Gorey, Ire.: Funge Art Centre, 1976.
Robert Armstrong designed the cover illustration that appears on the bookjacket.
Finnegans Wake. By James Joyce.
New York, The Viking Press, 1939. Bound in black cloth; spine and front cover gilt lettering.
A Genealogical History of the Dunlavey Family; Don Levi, Donlevy, Dunleavy, Dunlavey, Dunlevey, Etc. By Gwendolyn Dunlevy Kelley. Columbus, Ohio: The Evans Printing Co., 1901.
Good Souls to Survive: Poems. By Brendan Kennelly. Dublin: Allen Figgis and Company, Limited, 1967.
Bound in green cloth with dust jacket. Manuscript presentation on recto of free front end paper, "To Janet [inscription in Galeic], Brendan."
Greater than he Barabbas. By Diarmaid O Suilleabhain. Funge Art Center, 1976.
This volume is designed and illustrated by Robert Armstrong. Poems appear in English and Irish.
Imagination Morte Imaginez. [Imagine Dead Imagine]. By Samuel Beckett. London: Calder & Boyers, 1965 (1966).
Translated from the French by the author.
An Introduction to the Irish Language: In Three Parts. By Reverend Wm. Neilson. Achill: Mission Press, 1843.
The contents of this work include "An Original and Comprehensive Grammar," "Familiar Phrases and Dialogues," and "Extracts from Irish Books, and Manuscripts in the Original Character. With Copious Tables of the Contractions.
An Irish Gentleman: George Henry Moore. His Travels, His Racing, His Politics. By Colonel Maurice George Moore, C.B., with a preface by George Moore. London: T. Werner Laurie, Ltd., 1913.
This volumes is inscribed by the author, " . . . to his friend, Pauline, Dutchesse de Stackpoole, Brussels July 14th 1913."
Leabhar Sgeulaigheachta Cruinnightthe Agus Curtha le Cheile le Dubhghlas de Hide. By Douglas Hyde. Baile Atha Cliath: Gill, 1889.
This plain looking volume, bound in blue cloth with gilt lettering on the spine and a blue floral pattern on the paper edges, contains stories and poems gathered from various narrators by the author. A contemporary newspaper clipping of a book review, mounted on the flyleaf, describes the work as ". . . an excellent reading-book for learners . . . though the poetical instincts of the collector betray themselves here and there. There are a good many printer's errors, but many of these are corrected at the end. It is lamentable that Irish printers cannot make a better effort to print Irish correctly."
The author, rather reluctantly, adds English notes at the end of the work. "It seems ridiculous that we cannot publish a book in our own language without introducing more or less of English into it . . . If we allow our living language to die out, it is almost certain that we condemn our literary records to remain in obscurity . . . "
Lectures on the Manuscript Materials of Ancient Irish History. Delivered at the Catholic University of Ireland, During the Sessions of 1855 and 1856. By Eugene O’Curry. Dublin: Published by James Duffy, 1861.
Sixty facsimile specimens of Irish manuscripts dating from the years 430 - 1861 are published herein.
Moon and Star Moments. By James Liddy. New York: At-Swim Press, 1982.
"This first printing is limited to 300 copies." The calligraphy, design and illustrations are the work of Malachi McCormick.
Morison's Edition of the Poems of Ossian, the Son of Fingal. Translated by James MacPherson; Carefully Corrected, and Greatly Improved, with a Set of Elegant Engravings, from Original Drawings, by Stothard and Allan. Perth: Printed by R. Morison Junior, for R. Morison & Son, 1795.
The two volume set is bound in full leather and bears the bookplate of "James Hamilton of Brown Hall."
A Narrative of What Passed at Killalla, in the County of Mayo, and the Parts Adjacent, During the French Invasion in the Summer of 1798. By an Eyewitness. London: Printed for J. Stockdale [etc.], 1800.
The O'Conors of Connaught; An Historical Memoir, Compiled from a Manuscript of the Late John O'Donovan, with Additions from the State Papers and Public Records. By Charles Owen O'Conor Don. Dublin: Hodges, Figgis, and Co., 1891.
On the Boiler. By W.B. Yeats. Dublin: The Cuala Press, 1939? Cover design by Jack B. Yeats.
Outside the Pheasantry. By Brian Lynch. Gorey, Ire.: Funge Art Centre, 1976
Parnell and His Island. By George Moore. London: S. Sonnenschein, Lowrey & Co., 1887.
Although this work presents an unnamed narrator and the characters portrayed in the text are an amalgamation of actual figures and fictitious persons. Parnell serves as Moore's first autobiography. In its rejection of all things "Irish," this volume illustrates Moore's conflicting nature and the author uses the form of travel literature to describe the vagaries of Irish life in the 1880's. Moore continued to interweave fact and fiction in his writing, and in a 1923 letter he noted that memory often "plays us false," and observed that "a well-wrought fiction" may be "more true than an adequate memory."
Peace Conference Hints. By Bernard Shaw. London: Constable, 1919.
The Planets and Stars Become Friends. By Phillip Casey. Gorey, Ire.: Funge Art Center, 1974
The Plays of Oliver St. John Gogarty. With an Introduction by James F. Carens. Newark, Del.: Proscenium Press, 1970?
This is number 58 of an edition of 500 copies. The colophn states, ". . . printed . . . by Dixon Tribune . . . Quentin Larson was the printer, . . . bound by Robert Hogan."
Poems. By Cyril Cusack. Gorey, Ire.: Funge Art Centre, 1976.
The Poems of Amadeo Modigliani. Translated by James Liddy. Gorey, Ire.: Funge Art Centre, 1976.
The Repeal of the Union Conspiracy, Or, Mr. Parnell, M.P., and the I.R.B. London: William Ridgway, 1886.
This water-damaged pamphlet deals with Charles Parnell and the Irish Republican Brotherhood.