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Copybook containing handwritten draft of 'The Church and Its Spire' beginning ' I was born into the Catholic Church in the same way as I might have been born into Buddhism or Protestantism or any of the small isms - materialism, agnosticism, atheism and I was born into it in the infancy of this small state when it had almost total and unquestioned power.' also includes a few short notes relating to the publication of Amongst Women .

Copybook containing handwritten draft of The New York Times Magazine The Sophisticated Traveller ' version of the essay on County Leitrim article begins 'We live in the poor heart of the Island of Ireland.'; also includes an article on reading beginning 'Some years ago 'Poetry''' estimated it had submissions from 20,000 poets while it had less than 1,000 subscribers.' Also contains another draft of an article on reading beginning 'The two books about reading or looking that have meant the most to me are Auden's "The Dyer's Hand" and Proust's "Contre St. Beuve"; also includes handwritten transcript of a letter received by John McGahern from Winifred Turner, dated 3 January 1991 ; Turner a reader aged 84 who had heard McGahern speak on the radio details the her childhood in Boyle, where she moved with her father who was a bandmaster with the Connaught Rangers, she writes 'I hope you don't mind me writing to you but your books give me great pleasure.' A transcript of this letter appeared in early drafts of Memoir .

Copybook containing handwritten drafts of 2 portions of part 1 of 'The Leavetaking' ; one begins 'I knew he was about to go, the two day visit over; and to avoid the awkwardness of the unfelt emotion of the leavetaking climbed into the ash tree, where I could watch him go without being seen.' The other begins 'I was swinging under the ash tree when they came out and, rather than face them scrambled up into the hiding of it high branches.'

Copybook containing handwritten drafts of two portions of part 1 'The Leavetaking' , one beginning ' "Who do you love the most in the world?" ', the other beginning 'I watch the gulls shadows float among on the concrete as I walk in a day of my life with a bell. Its brass tongue in my hand.'

Copybook containing notes on actors who auditioned for Mary O'Malley.

Copybook containing notes on folklore from "Finnegan's Wake", mainly from the Irish into English.

Copybook containing pages of The Mistletoe Bough by Reverend W. Reynolds to be used in a private Christmas family production of the play. Many pages are loose. Also includes a copy of the programme for the production.

Copybook containing part of a handwritten draft of 'Creatures of the Earth' beginning 'Mrs. Walshe and her daughter, Eileen, closed their big house in its own grounds outside Castlebar after Surgeon Walshe's death and moved to their summer house in Achill.' Also handwritten piece on Blake's of the Hollow a pub and restaurant in Enniskillen beginning 'I've been going to Blake's of the Hollow in Enniskillen for close on twenty years. Now and I believe it to be one of the happiest and most beautiful bars in the whole of Ireland.'

Copybook containing part of a handwritten draft of 'Like All Other Men' beginning ' "I suppose we could walk out of this place and never meet again after the two years" Maguire said.' Also contains a handwritten draft of part of a work of fiction possibly 'Gold Watch' beginning 'The pretence that running into one another in the rush hour was a delight as well as a surprise had grown almost of its own accord in to the longer and tedious pretence of dinner in this expensive restaurant.' Also contains a handwritten draft of a piece of fiction possibly an early version of 'Bank Holiday beginning 'The woman had driven the four hours out of New York to spend the weekend in the small town as she had done every weekend that spring when he hadn't come into the city.'

Copybook containing parts of two handwritten drafts of 'Like All Other Men', one beginning 'I had watched Maguire's dark face and limp black hair across the refectory table for two years.'; the other beginning 'The strangest thing about the afternoon dances in the Metropole was how it established a night as complete as sleep in the middle of the day.' Also contains handwritten fragments of 'A Ballad', 'Oldfashioned' .