| Description | The papers are divided into two sections, the first and most comprehensive section relate to the life and work of Tadhg Seoige, the second contains material relating to the Joyce farm in Renmore in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is only very disparate material, and there was no original order discernable. In relation to the first section of these papers, they are subdivided further into two sections, covering his personal affairs, and his literary work. Material relating to Tadhg Seoige's personal affairs include some material from his time as a member of the Royal Irish Constabulary, his work as land agent for the Guinness family and later the Congested Districts Board on the Aran Islands until the late twenties, and his financial arrangements.
The section on his literary work is divided into five parts, and reflects Tadhg's literary output from draft works to finished articles, books and translated plays. The correspondence, particularly in relation to his book Scéaltaí Cois Teallaigh with the Book Committee of the Department of Education, is instructive of the efforts of the Department to get works in Irish into the bookshops and schools of the country. The correspondence also reflects the close-knot community of editors and free-lance writers in Irish that existed in the 1920s and 1930s, and their efforts to keep the Irish language newspapers running.
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| Administrative History | Thady Joyce/Tadhg S Seoige was born in the Renmore area of County Galway in the 1850s. He grew up on the family farm, which had been divided between his father and his uncle. By 1876 he had learned English, and joined the Royal Irish Constabulary. He was stationed in Dublin until his retirement in 1908. In 1910 he became a land agent for the Guinness family for their estates on the Aran Islands. When the lands were taken over by the Congested Districts Board in 1912 he became their representative on the island for a number of years. He retired to Galway in 1929, and lived there until his death in 1942. It was only in his sixties that he began writing in Irish, recording the stories of his youth, as well as those of the Aran Islands. He wrote one book, "Scéaltaí Cois Teallaigh", a collection of stories, many of which had appeared in Irish-language newspapers of the time. He also translated M M Brenan's 'The Young Man From Rathmines' into Irish in the late 1920s, and this was staged in An Taibhdhearc in 1941. |