Collection G42 - The Papers of Seosamh Mac Grianna

45 items

Seosamh 'Joe Fheilimí' Mac Grianna was born in August 1900 in Ranafast, in the Rosses area of north-western Donegal, to a family who were the first to settle in the area, having come from Letterkenny in the mid-18th century. His childhood and youth unfold

These papers were extracted from another archival collection, namely the papers of Proinsias Mac an Bheatha, according to the archival principal of provenance. Mac Grianna's papers had come into Mac an Bheatha's possession when, after Mac Grianna's unanno

This small collection of personal papers comprises documents effectively spanning 25 years in the life of Donegal and Dublin writer Seosamh Mac Grianna. All manuscript material, whether in the form of notebooks or loose leaves, contains a mixture of diary entries, ideas for writing, agendas, as well as drafts for literary pieces. The other material is not a result of any consistent collecting activity and merely offers glimpses of domestic circumstances and pursuits of Mac Grianna.

Diary entries [particularly G42/ 3-5, entries in G42/ 6 and 7, fragments G42/ 15 and 16]: both immediate and retrospective entries on life in Dublin, and on travels in Wales; agendas/ resolutions; books read. Notable preoccupation with physical exercise and the need to travel, with biblical imagery and chronology, and catechetics.

Drafts, sketches, ideas for literary work and for pseudo-historical pieces or commentary [particularly G42/ 2, 4, 11, 12, 13, 17-21]: ranging from naturalistic piece in urban setting, reflective pieces, verse, to pieces of a fantastical and often very disjointed nature with historical and mythological undertones.

Copies of or translations from historical texts [particularly G42/ 1, 6, 7, 8 ]: the Brehon laws, Caesar's "De Bello Gallico" with 'Hibernicising' modifications, [D'Arbois de Jubainville]; see also printed copy of Vergil's Aenid G42/ 43.

Copies of and translations from literary texts [particularly G42/ 1, 8, 9, 10, 14]: Anton Giulio Barrili's "L'undicesimo commandamento" (1881), Tommaso Grossi's "Marco Visconte" (1847), Spanish version of Victor Hugo's "Notre Dame" (1831). These copies more likely bear out Mac Grianna's interest in the Italian and Spanish languages than in the popular 19th-century writings contained.

Personal accounts [G42/ 22 and 23]: dealings with An Gúm, lodgings in Dublin, Fionn Mac Grianna's stay in hospital.

Correspondence [G42/ 24-33]: mostly documents sent to Mac Grianna - arbitrary survival of items with memorabilia character, often fragmentary, with no correspondent appearing more than once.

Press and printed material [G 34- 43]: notably including two press items reviewing works of Mac Grianna; the road map used when travelling Wales.

Transcripts of notebooks and diary [G42/ 45]: the [excerpts from the] diary of Proinsias Mac an Bheatha contain some points not eventually printed in his essay "Seosamh Mac Grianna".

The collection falls broadly into two parts, namely notebooks and various writings by Seosamh MacGrianna, and accumulated papers found together with these; two appendices give documentary evidence. Originally, the loose-leaf papers had been bundled togeth

The material in this collection is available to all bone fide researchers and subject to the conditions of access governing the consultation of archival material at the James Hardiman Library. No material may be reproduced from this collection without the
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Descriptive list

196

Catalog

27-06-2013
25-07-2025