Remembering Sister Majella McCarron (OLA)

A Guest Blog by Helen Fallon, former Deputy Librarian

From Fermanagh to Nigeria 
On Tuesday 2^nd April 2024, Sister Majella McCarron was laid to rest at Our Lady of Apostles (OLA) Convent in Ardfoyle, Cork. This was the convent where, 68 years earlier, aged 17, she had entered the novitiate.  

Sr. McCarron

Born in 1939, Majella McCarron grew up in Derrylin, Fermanagh, the eldest of a family of five. Her father was a publican and shopkeeper. This was a time of strong missionary activity and when she was just twelve Majella answered an advertisement for missionary nuns. She left Fermanagh and went to County Down where OLA had a juniorate, and from there progressed to the convent in Ardfoyle.  

After completing a science degree at University College Cork (UCC), she was assigned to Nigeria, where she was to spend the next thirty years, teaching first at secondary school level and later lecturing in education at the University of Lagos.  

Meeting Ken Saro-Wiwa 
In 1990 she was asked by the Missionary Institute of Our Lady of Apostles to identify – for the Brussels-based Africa-Europe Faith and Justice Network (AEFJN) – communities in Nigeria adversely affected by western business, so the AEFJN could lobby at European level on their behalf. She quickly identified the activities of the international petrochemical industry in Ogoni, and began to work with writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa. He had established the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), to peacefully protest against the destruction of his homeland.  

Ken Saro-Wiwa, courtesy of Noo Saro-Wiwa

Ogoni is a small kingdom, with a population of approximately 500,000 in the Niger Delta in south-western Nigeria. It is an area with extensive oil reserves. While the then Nigerian military regime received massive revenues from Royal Dutch Shell, in Ogoni there was no piped water, no electricity, no hospitals, and few schools. The environmental impact of the oil exploration had devastated the land. Water was contaminated, fish stocks depleted, the atmosphere poisoned, farmland lay crusted in crude oil, and rain fell as acid rain. 

Sister Majella worked with Saro-Wiwa in many ways including organising leadership training for MOSOP, based on the psychosocial method of Brazilian adult educator Paulo Freire. Under his leadership, MOSOP managed, through peaceful protest, to defy one of the largest armies in Africa and force Royal Dutch Shell, one of the most powerful companies in the world, to withdraw from Ogoni. Following the protests the Nigerian government, worried about the threat to oil revenue, began to harass Saro-Wiwa and his colleagues. Four local chiefs were murdered in May 1994. Saro-Wiwa was arrested, accused of encouraging the killings, and with fourteen others placed in military detention. After a sham trial, he and eight others – the Ogoni Nine – were sentenced to death. A detailed account of the trial can be found in the Amnesty International report In the Dock: Shell’s complicity in the arbitrary execution of the Ogoni Nine 

1. Sr. McCarron with students at the University of Lagos, 1993
2. Sr. McCarron speaking at a protest held at a shell petrol station

Back to Ireland 
Sister Majella returned to Ireland in August 1994, having decided not to renew her contract at the University of Lagos where she had worked for thirteen years. She campaigned to save the lives of the Ogoni Nine, and was actively involved in the establishment of Ogoni Solidarity Ireland. Contact with Saro-Wiwa carried on by letters, smuggled out of military detention in breadbaskets. The efforts of Sister Majella, Ogoni Solidarity Ireland and major public figures, including Bill Clinton, were not successful: the Ogoni Nine were executed on the 16^th of November 1995. 

Sr. McCarron with members of  Ogoni Solidarity Ireland, at a famine memorial march in Co. Mayo

Maynooth University Library 
Sister Majella’s strong association with Maynooth University Library, began in 2011. Below she describes how this came about: 

“My correspondence with Ken Saro-Wiva, sat in a box in my wardrobe for sixteen years. I needed to find a safe place for the letters and other things Ken had sent me. I began to think about Maynooth University. This idea came to me as a sat in a field in Erris overlooking the ocean and chatting to a member of the Rossport Solidarity Camp, John O’Shea, about his MA thesis with the Sociology department at Maynooth University. He was in Erris to support Shell to Sea and I was part of the Table Observers reporting on human rights protection during the protests. He was discussing the actions of Shell in the Niger Delta and my experience in Ogoni. I tasked him to make enquiries at Maynooth University”. 

John O’Shea contacted the Library and procedures began immediately for acquiring the collection. 

Sr. Majella McCarron, with University Librarian Cathal McCauley, Deputy Librarian Helen Fallon, and former President of Maynooth University Professor Philip Nolan, at the launch of the Saro-Wiwa archive

The Collection

On 10^th of November 2011, the 16^th anniversary of the execution of the Ogoni Nine, Professor Philip Nolan, President of Maynooth University accepted the archive from Sister Majella on behalf of the University, saying the collection cast a very human eye on what was one of the late 20^th Century’s most troubling geopolitical issues.  
 
The collection includes 28 letters from Saro-Wiwa to Sister Majella, 27 poems, photographs, videos, articles, reviews, flyers, MOSOP flag and t-shirt, a cap that had belonged to Saro-Wiwa and various ephemera.  

Ringing the Ogoni Bells 

In one of his letters Saro-Wiwa encouraged Sister Majella to “keep on ringing those Ogoni bells”. When she donated the collection to Maynooth University, she was keen that it be publicised and made available for both academic research and to community activism groups. MU Library approached ringing the Ogoni bells in a number of ways. 

 
Silence Would be Treason

The 28 letters were published, with contextual essays – as Silence Would be Treason: Last Writings of Ken Saro-Wiwa by Daraja Press.  A subsequent collection of essays and poems I am a Man of Peace was published to mark the 25^th anniversary of the execution of the Ogoni Nine in 2020. 

The Ken Saro-Wiwa Audio Archive 

The Library worked with Kairos Communications to create the Ken Saro-Wiwa Audio Archive, which contains extensive interviews with Sister Majella McCarron, covering topics such as her Irish childhood, her education, her missionary work in Nigeria, the events that brought her to Saro-Wiwa, and all that passed subsequently. Other recordings include Dr Owens Wiwa, Ken’s brother and his daughter the award winning travel writer Noo Saro-Wiwa. 
 

Visit of Noo Saro-Wiwa 
On the 10^th of November 2015, the 20^th anniversary of the execution of the Ogoni Nine, Noo Saro-Wiwa visited Maynooth University (MU) Library. She viewed her father’s archives, read from her book “Looking for transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria” and launched the MU Ken Saro-Wiwa Postgraduate Award and was interviewed for the MU Ken Saro-Wiwa Audio Archive.  
 

Outreach 
The letters have been exhibited to mark events such as International Human Rights Day. Africa Day, Development Studies Week, the anniversary of the execution of the Ogoni Nine  and as part of conferences/seminars which have a development studies/conflict resolution theme. The collection has been used across a wide range of courses in Maynooth University. A local public library selected Silence Would be Treason: Last Writings of Ken Saro-Wiwa as their reading club book and children from local schools have visited the library, viewed the letters and discussed the issues surrounding the conflict in the Niger Delta in class. A poetry competition and a student bursary, have also been part of the output.  The Ken Saro-Wiwa Travelling Exhibition has gone on display at  Quinnipiac University in the US, and in a number of public libraries and exhibition spaces in Ireland. A number of conference papers and journal articles have been produced.

In a letter dated the 1^st December 1993, Saro-Wiwa urged Sr. Majella: 

 “Keep putting your thoughts on paper. Who knows how we can use them in future. The Ogoni story will have to be told!”  

In gifting this material to the Library, Sr. Majella has ensured the Ogoni story, which resonates with many stories worldwide of injustice, land rights, inequality and exploitation, is told. 

The problem of tea & tea drinkers: Reports from the Freeman’s Journal on dietary changes & nutritional decline in post Famine Ireland.

By Jennifer O’ Malley, Library Assistant, Special Collections & Archives

“Tea is slowly conquering the world. It is an insidious beverage, and the desire for it grows by what it feeds on”.  

Freeman’s Journal 1896

The above excerpt is taken from an article published in the Freeman’s Journal in January 1896 and gives a glimpse into the impact that the nation’s humble cuppa was having on society at the time. The newspapers reporting and analysis of the introduction of tea to the Irish public first began after it made its way to Ireland in the 1800s. During this time newspapers played a pivotal role in circulating information, shaping public opinion, and giving insight into social, political and cultural outlooks. After recently joining the Special Collections and Archives team I was delighted to discover that amongst our vast collection of rare books and items we hold a large selection of the Freeman’s Journal. The newspaper had consistently reported on the dietary changes in post famine Ireland, a topic that my own research studies are based upon. The Freeman’s Journal was published in Dublin from 1763 to 1924 and was Ireland’s leading national newspaper during the nineteenth century, employing such a prominent position in Irish public life that it was even featured in James Joyce’s Ulysses.  

Tea was a product once considered to be a luxury item that was mainly savoured by the middle classes. It became more widely available and obtainable to those on the lower end of the socio-economic scale after the cost of tea was lowered significantly during the 1850s. This led to increasingly high consumption levels being witnessed across many parts of the country. In one particular article the newspaper warns that “Its popularity has created a new repast in modern society, “afternoon tea” to wit, which has two distinct and deteriorating tendencies-the one towards dyspepsia and the other towards the abominable form of mental indigestion, scandal mongering”.  

Tea advertisement, Freeman’s Journal 1896

Indeed, tea would not only be the most suitable accompaniment to gossip, the increase in excessive tea drinking amongst the population was understood to have contributed greatly to the deterioration of the Irish diet. According to an article from 1893 changes in Irish dietary customs now saw staple foods such as potatoes, oatmeal, wheatmeal bread and milk being replaced by convenience foods such as tea, sugar and white bread. These products contributed greatly to the decline of nutritional health amongst the working classes and the poor. Physicians also believed that women were more susceptible to negative side effects from excessive tea drinking “due to their delicate disposition”. In January 1896 the newspaper further reported on the “supposed connection between tea drinking and insanity” reiterating that “tea drinking must be accompanied by an absence of wholesome diet and active exercise before its use could produce neurotics or lunatics”. Toward the end of the 19^th century new terms such as “tea mania and “tea drunkards” were invented by a few psychiatrists to explain a disorder that included symptoms such as headaches, insomnia, heart palpitations and mental confusion. Although tea was not directly responsible for the mental health issues being experienced by those who overindulged in the beverage the connection between dyspepsia and nervous excitement remained evident.

Article from Freeman’s Journal 1896

A later article published in 1872 gave a somewhat alarming account about a domestic servant who had become “overwhelmed and had got into a state of great weakness” and had several hysterical fits. Having previously been in good health upon medical examination it was disclosed that she had become addicted to tea. In 1893 the newspaper asserted that “tea drinking is especially condemned by the doctors as injurious to health. Dyspepsia and its allied diseases and mental diseases are said to be traceable to it”. It was also suggested that a sharp increase in asylum admissions at the time could be linked to the over-reliance of tea and poor nutrition which mostly affected the poverty stricken amongst the population who used it as a hunger suppressant. Interests peaked in the effects of tea on the public’s well-being and resulted in an official investigation being launched by Dublin Castle. 

Overall, it can be understood that excessive tea drinking had led to individuals becoming dependent on this cheap liquid refreshment which unbeknownst to most was a nervous stimulant. Little did we know that tea would become more than just a beverage; it would be a symbol of hospitality and a keystone of Irish daily life. 

For access to our collections and other materials for consultation, please make an appointment with us by emailing Library.Russell@mu.ie or phoning (01) 708 3890. 

Further reading:

“Tea and tea drinkers”, Freemans Journal, 10 January 1896. 

“The Irish agricultural labourer”, Freemans Journal, 6^th December 1893. 

Thomas Drapes, “On the alleged increase of insanity in Ireland”. Journal of Mental Science 40 (1894), pp. 519-536. 

Ian Miller, “Reforming food in post-Famine Ireland: medicine, science and improvement, 1845–1922 (Manchester, 2014). 

References 

Drapes, Thomas (1894). “On the alleged increase of insanity in Ireland”. Journal of Mental Science 40, pp. 519-536. 

Miller, Ian (2014). “Reforming food in post-Famine Ireland: medicine, science and improvement, 1845–1922 

Magic in the margins: a comparison of two ‘trickster’ figures for April Fools’ Day

By Yvette Campbell, Assistant Librarian, Special Collections & Archives

The fool from RB 39 – [Printed Book of Hours (1526) with manuscript illuminations]

April Fools’ Day (April 1^st) is a day often associated with misbehaving and tricking others into believing false stories or tales. The origins of the day, while complex, may have had their roots in pagan festivals marking the beginning of spring. The day evolved over centuries to become commonly affiliated with a trickster or jester figure who since medieval times has often been associated with inverting the social order and turning the world upside down.

Recently, I came across the names of two figures noted in the margins of two very different manuscripts in the Russell Library. Both figures have been associated with magic and trickery, and who in their own ways, were responsible for inverting the social order in their respective times: Simon Magus, the Magician and the Irish druid Mogh Ruith.  

“Saint Peter and Simon Magus” by Benozzo Gozzoli (Benozzo di Lese di Sandro). Image: Creative Commons

RB 71 is a medieval manuscript produced in the late 13^th century by a single scribe. The Latin text contains works by St. Augustine. What caught my eye when cataloguing this item was a small annotation in the margins on fo.32r referring to a paragraph discussing Simon Magus.  

Simon Magus (or Simon the Magician) was identified in Christian writings as a dangerous individual of the 1^st century AD, who possessed great magical powers and attempting to trick followers of Christ into bestowing his powers to them in exchange for money and influence. He was challenged by St. Peter to change his ways and was universally acknowledged in ecclesiastical writings as the archetypal heretic of the Christian Church.  

A former owner of RB 71 has annotated ‘SIMON MAGU-MUS HERET[IC]’ beside the paragraph in question. Medieval owners of such manuscripts often wrote in the margins of medieval manuscripts to draw attention to what they felt were important pieces of information. The margins were frequently left large enough in many scholastic texts to accommodate such annotations or glosses.

Annotation on fo.32r of RB 71 – Miscellaneous works of St. Augustine

In comparison, PB 11 is a 19^th century Gaelic manuscript originally from St. Colman’s College in Fermoy that similarly mentions another very famous magician in the margins – the legendary Irish druid known as Mogh Ruith (or Mug Ruith).  

This Irish manuscript which was relocated to the Russell Library at Maynooth in 2013 was copied from the Book of Lismore (a late 15^th century Gaelic manuscript) – in 1860 by Joseph Long of Whitechurch and gives a detailed account of the boundaries and history of Fermoy and its chieftains. It alludes to how the land was given to Mogh Ruith. 

The annotation reads: “Mogh Ruith…was a celebrated Munster druid who flourished in the 3^rd century. For a full account of his exploits and magic feats, see the Forbuis Dromdamhghaire [Forbhuis Droma Damhghaire] – a curious story of the reign of Cormac Mac Art.” 

Mogh Ruith – PB 11 – Tract on the topography of the two Fermoys copied from the Book of Lismore

Mogh Ruith (“Slave of the Wheel”) was a formidable blind magician, sometimes compared to Merlin in Arthurian legend, who intervened in an epic magical conflict between Cormac Mac Art and Munster King Fiacha Muillethan at Knocklong. As soon as he bargained for a steep reward of land, the wizard used a spear to release the waters of Munster to drown Cormac’s rival druids and banished them from the land, turning some to stone with his breath of dark cloud. Cormac Mac Art felt like a fool for trusting the old pagan spirits of Ireland.

Wizards Unite : comparisons and contrast

Both magicians are based on legend with mythological elements – one recorded in the margins of a Gaelic manuscript and the other in the margins of a medieval Latin text; one in the Christian tradition and the other in pagan myths and legends with some overlap between the two figures. 

In later tradition, Mogh Ruith was said to have travelled to the East to become a student under none other than…Simon Magus! It was claimed Simon Magus helped Mogh Ruith to build his famous flying machine called the roth rámach. According to the medieval Irish apocryphal tradition, Mogh Ruith was said to have been responsible for the beheading of St. John the Baptist. 

The dance of death at Basel: death and the jester. Lithograph by G. Danzer after H. Hess. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Furthermore, in some Irish legends Simon Magus coincidentally came to be associated with druidism. The word ‘druid’ was sometimes translated into Latin as ‘magus’, and Simon Magus was said to be known in Ireland as Simon the Druid. By contrast, stories about Mogh Ruith are set in various periods of Irish myths with some tales placing him in Jerusalem at the dawn of Christianity under the tutelage of Simon. 

While no fools themselves, these two trickster figures certainly succeeded in inverting the social order for a time, attempting to make fools of the people who chose to either follow or confront them. The similarities and overlap between the two have been shown, not least that two former owners’ – centuries apart – highlighted their names in the margins of two completely different manuscripts in our collection – a perfect comparison for April Fools’ Day! 

For access to our manuscript collections and other materials for consultation, please make an appointment with us by emailing Library.Russell@mu.ie or phoning (01) 708 3890

Further reading:

Shingurova, Tatiana (2018). The Story of Mog Ruith: Perceptions of the Local Myth in Seventeenth-Century Ireland. Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium, Vol. 38., pp. 231-258

Menorca Meanderings – A book documenting summer visits to Fornells, Menorca

By Alma Deane, Library Assistant, Special Collections & Archives

As a new member of the Special Collections & Archives team here in Maynooth University, I have the wonderful opportunity to browse through our immense collection of books each day.

Whilst cataloguing a new collection of books from Pearse Hutchinson’s collection, I came across a beautiful book that took me by surprise. This book titled Quadern de Fornells by Àlex Susanna, is a compilation of diary-like notebook entries documenting the author’s visits during the summer months to the town of Fornells on the Balearic Island of Menorca.

Firstly, it is interesting to note that this book is written in Catalan, the official language of the Balearic Islands. It’s no surprise that this item is included in Pearse Hutchinson’s collection, as he learned several languages throughout his lifetime. In 1954, he travelled to Barcelona where he learned Catalan and became acquainted with well-known Catalan poets. The author Àlex Susanna is a Spanish and Catalan poet, so this book would have been of great interest to Hutchinson.

This book particularly interested me as I spent the summer of 2022 in Menorca working in Fornells bay as a sailing instructor. For this reason, I was delighted to come across this book and to read someone else’s experiences of living on the same beautiful island. Susanna writes about four summers he spent there, from 1992 to 1995, and I was amazed at how similar our experiences were of life in Fornells, thirty years apart.

As Susanna was a poet, the subjects of these diary entries vary between describing day-to-day life, to finding inspiration from the island for his work, as well as visiting friends and painters around the island.

Figure 1: Platges de Fornells, Menorca

In an entry from the 16^th July 1994, Susanna describes the mornings in Mahón, the capital of Menorca, which seemed to have a similar schedule to my instructor life; “Around 8 o’clock in the morning, the ship breaks the waters.” During my time in Menorca, I lived in the town of Ses Salines, a short walk from Fornells, and I too started work at 8 o’clock each day by launching boats into the water.  

While sailing around Fornells bay every day, you experience all sorts of weather, from calm seas, to violent thunderstorms. It seems Susanna, a keen fisher, also had to tackle these ever-changing weather conditions. On an evening fishing trip in Fornells bay, Susanna, heading south towards Ses Salines, explains how “The bay as almost always at this time, is calm. The sun licks the anchored sailboats for the last time.” This was a typical evening, just as the sun is about to go down, the wind dies and the conditions certainly for fishing would have been perfect.

Contrary to these calm evenings, thunderstorms are common, particularly towards the end of the summer. Menorca is known as the windy island, and Susanna captures this in his book; “It is a great coast, devastated, jagged and gnawed by all kinds of storms.” One such storm appeared on the 21st August 1994, that lasted for several days; “By the fifth day it was impossible with our boats to leave the bay,” as the “wind was not lacking and we were inevitably stuck on land.” This reminded me of my experience of thunderstorms in late August 2022, and how I was also stuck on land, unable to go out sailing. As my days revolved around being out at sea, during these storms it seemed, just like Susanna, that I didn’t know how to occupy myself.

Figure 2: SP PH 288 Front Cover Figure 3: SP PH 288 Back Cover

Regardless, these storms die down and the sea returns to its calm and peaceful self again. Sailing continues, and fishermen can be seen out on their boats once more. Susanna describes this calmness after the storm as “A sea of silver – tired of so much uproar, today it was an ironed and smooth surface.”   

Overall, this is a wonderful book that gives a great insight into Àlex Susanna’s life whilst living in Menorca, which I found to be very relatable and enjoyable.

This collection of Pearse Hutchinson’s books is currently being catalogued and will be available soon to readers in our Special Collections & archives department at Maynooth University Library.

Material analysis of French and Dutch manuscripts at Inks and Skins at the Russell Library, Maynooth University

by Pádraig Ó Macháin Professor of Modern Irish at University College Cork.

The work of the IRC-funded and UCC-based Inks and Skins project is focused on the Irish manuscript of the vernacular Gaelic tradition from 1100 to 1600. It seeks to provide scientific answers to ostensibly simple questions such as: what inks and pigments did the Gaelic scribes use? What can analysis of vellum tell us about production, preparation and use of these great books? Was there a difference between these materials and those used in manuscripts from the early Church tradition in Ireland, or from parallel traditions elsewhere in Ireland and abroad?

One of these parallel traditions is that of religious manuscripts produced in continental Europe in the late medieval period. To form a general idea of the materiality of these books, Inks and Skins, through the kindness of the wonderful staff in Special Collections, availed of the opportunity to carry out analysis on selected manuscripts from the medieval collection in the Russell Library, Maynooth University. Most of these manuscripts were written in the Low Countries and in France during the late-medieval period; a few are near-contemporaries of the project’s target manuscript, the Book of Uí Mhaine, written in Co. Galway in the second half of the 14^th century.

Book of Hours RB 37

Book of Hours RB 37

The Maynooth medieval collection is in the happy position of having been the subject of an excellent and thorough catalogue: that of Peter and Angela Lucas, published in 2014. The catalogue provides detailed information on provenance, divisions of hands, scripts, decoration, collation and contents. It is an exemplary piece of work, and a must-have for anyone with even a cursory interest in the hand-made book. For Inks and Skins, the Lucas catalogue greatly facilitated the selection of targets that aligned with the time-frame of our work.

That work consisted of X-Ray Fluorescent spectroscopic analysis combined with optical microscopic investigation and photography, over the period of a week in August 2023, of the inks and pigments in eight manuscripts of the collection, dating from the 12^th to the 16^th century. These manuscripts included bibles, psalters, books of hours, and a benedictional. They presented a variety of scripts and textual arrangements on calfskin and, in one instance, sheepskin. Skin thicknesses ranged from .1 to .26 mm.

The decoration of these manuscripts came in a variety of styles and materials – the colour palate particularly – not present in their Gaelic contemporaries, obviously so in the case of the Books of Hours, which, in addition to letter and page decoration, involved the contribution of miniaturists who created the full-page illustrations. Another over-riding difference between the two traditions is the simple one of the clarity and cleanliness of the mainland European books, which were stored in libraries almost from the moment of their creation, in contrast to the Gaelic manuscripts, which never saw the inside of libraries until centuries later, and consequently bear all the marks of having ‘slept rough’ for a long number of years.

MA Irish 29

Despite material differences between the continental manuscripts and those of the Irish vernacular tradition, their shared heritage of bookcraft is plain to see, from quiring and ruling to the use of different grades of litterae notabiliores to signify the beginning of texts and sections of texts. The dominance of iron gall-ink is also part of this shared heritage, as is the distinction between the public and the personal book, defined by portability: the folio-sized bible or psalter as opposed to the pocket-sized personal prayerbook.

These results help us to better understand the Gaelic vernacular, insular tradition as a variant within a common heritage of bookcraft that extends back to early Christian times, when writing and the art of the manuscript were first introduced to Ireland.

Ernan McMullin’s 2011 Bequest to Maynooth University

By Guest Writers: Aleksi Gramatikov and Abigail Mee, with assistance from Dr Kevin Tracey

The Irishman Ernan McMullin (Figure 1) was a noted philosopher who spent much of his distinguished career at the University of Notre Dame, where his work on the relationships between philosophy, religion, and science helped influence generations of future scholars. Importantly, McMullin’s interest in these topics was influenced by his early studies in divinity and physics at Maynooth. Upon his passing in 2011, he bequeathed some 350 books to Maynooth University’s John Paul II library.[1] As part of our SPUR project, this summer we explored that bequest and its relevance to McMullin’s scholarship.[2] To extend our research into his library, his thought, and his personal and professional networks, we took the initiative to email several people who had written dedications to McMullin in their own publications. As the following article details, our project sheds further light on an academic who is remembered not only for his significant contributions to the history and philosophy of science (HPS), but also for his warmth, kindness, and generosity.  

Figure 1: Ernan McMullin. Image originally provided by the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, Cambridge, United Kingdom to Isis, 103 (2012), 139-143, 139.

---

Ernan McMullin’s Life and Career

A Donegal man, Ernan McMullin was born in Ballybofey in October 1924, and died in February 2011 in Letterkenny. At Maynooth College, he successfully completed bachelor’s degrees in physics and theology in 1945 and joined the priesthood in 1949. As his subsequent fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Sciences in Dublin (DIAS) demonstrates, his ordination did not curtail his scientific interests. After the completion of his doctorate in 1954, McMullin joined the philosophy department of Notre Dame, and his colleagues Philip R. Sloan and Don Howard recall him as central to the president Theodore Hesburgh’s goal of transforming the university from Catholic men’s college to a world-class research institute.

McMullin enjoyed great success at Notre Dame, acting as director of the graduate program in HPS from 1977 to 1994 and holding the John Cardinal O’Hara Chair in Philosophy thereafter. Alongside his achievements and additional accolades from the American Catholic Philosophical Association and the Metaphysical Society of America, he was remembered by colleagues as a wonderful friend and mentor and the embodiment of the intellectual, emotional, and spiritual culture cultivated at Notre Dame.

Ernan McMullin’s Bequest to Maynooth

As befitted his career, the philosopher left more than 350 books on the history and philosophy of the physical sciences; cosmology; biology; and relationship between science and religion. A significant sub-section of the bequest concerns scholarship on Galileo Galilei, his astronomy, and his disputes with the seventeenth-century Roman Catholic Church. McMullin was an expert on these topics, and his important, edited collection The Church and Galileo (2005) took the present-day Church to task over the limitations of its 1992 partial apology concerning the ‘Galileo Affair’ (Figure 2). This collection is a rich source of materials for anyone in any field with interests in HPS.

Figure 2: Cover of McMullin’s edited collection, The Church and Galileo (2005).

Many books were signed by McMullin, and just over 30% contained examples of his active reading of their contents – including nota bene, commentary, and, sometimes, strong disagreement. Evidence from McMullin’s reading processes helped our understanding of his academic approach, and, at the same time, encouraged us to complete a bibliography of his works, articles, and reviews. In the future, it may be possible to combine these findings with research into McMullin’s notebooks, currently held in Notre Dame.

Figure 3: An example of McMullin’s annotation for review, found in Maurice A. Finocchiaro’s Galileo and the Art of Reasoning (1980)

Our Interactions with McMullin’s Theory

The inquiries highlighted by McMullin’s annotation in Figure 3 remain relevant, with current scholars such as Paul L. Allen, Amerigo Barzaghi and Josep Corcó continuing to utilize his works and concepts.[3] Throughout this project, we had the opportunity to engage with Ernan McMullin’s work, in particular his idea of critical realism. Perhaps owing to his training as a theoretical physicist, McMullin acknowledged the existence of an independent reality that can be studied through scientific methods. This means is that we can actually know things about what we experience – and that we can predict what might be the case even without direct experience. This approach emphasizes the importance of understanding the underlying structures and mechanisms of the world around us. Yet, for McMullin, our understanding of the ‘real world’ is based on methods, models and theories which are themselves subject to change over time. As such, historical perspective is crucial. This position is reflective of his philosophical and religious positions, both of which allowed him to emphasise the limits of human understanding. Ernan McMullin’s persistent clarity of thought and his holistic approach encouraged him to find ‘consonances’ between science and religion in an attempt to bridge the gaps which many believe insurmountable.

---

Evidence of Ernan McMullin’s Networks and Influence

A significant number of items bore the signature of their authors, and books were often addressed or dedicated to McMullin. In one uniquely collaborative example, I. S. Shklovskii and Carl Sagan’s Intelligent Life in the Universe contained a dedication from the renowned Sagan himself. As we explored these examples further, we were struck by the respect – and indeed, love – many authors communicated for the Irish philosopher. Fellow theorists, colleagues, friends, and students were all present, including authors such as Des Clarke, Janet Kourany, Dava Sobel, and Kenneth Winkler. These dedications alone act as testament to the strong ties Ernan McMullin forged across his career. But when McMullin’s peers and colleagues heard of our research programme, they responded with astonishing generosity: providing us with deeply personal recollections of the how, when, and where of their interactions, many of which had occurred years or decades prior.

At the start of this project, we had thought of Ernan McMullin as a successful academic with an interesting link to Maynooth. The picture others painted, however, was of an inspirational and generous philosopher who influenced and supported scholars in almost every branch of the history and philosophy of science.

Taken together, Ernan McMullin’s bequest to Maynooth University and the memories of his friends and colleagues demonstrate just how valuable the man and his and work were. Later this summer, anecdotes from McMullin’s career will feature alongside an exhibition of historical materials from the Russell and John Paul II libraries identified as part of our SPUR project. These materials will contribute to a conference influenced in part by McMullin’s work, titled Consonances I: Mathematics, Language, and the Moral Sense of Nature, with opening remarks by Professor Sophie Roux (Paris), subtitled ‘A Belated Tribute to Ernan McMullin’. As we hope we have shown, each of these factors make Eran McMullin, his work in HPS, and his unique bequest to the John Paul II Library worthy of further study.

[1]https://nuim.summon.serialssolutions.com/search?spellcheck=true&keep_r=true&ho=t&s.q=mcmullin%2C+ernan#!/search?ho=t&include.ft.matches=f&l=en&q=mcmullin,%20ernan

[2] Maynooth University Summer Programme for Undergraduate Research (SPUR) project, ‘Reflections on the History and Philosophy of Science: Exploring Ernan McMullin’s Bequest to Maynooth University’. Supervised by Dr Susan Gottlöber (Philosophy), Dr Ciarán Mac an Bhaird (Mathematics and Statistics) and Dr Kevin Tracey (English).

[3] See for example Paul L. Allen, Ernan McMullin and Critical Realism in the Science-Theology Dialogue (Abindgon: Routledge, 2006); Amergio Barzaghi and Josep Corcó, ‘Ernan McMullin’s Thought on Science and Theology: An Appreciation’, Open Theology, 1 (2015), 512-523.

Ghosts of Christmases Past: Celebrating Advent in the Middle Ages

by guest writer, Kayleigh Ferguson, MMus MSLIS, PhD Candidate at Maynooth University

In the western Middle Ages, the yearly calendar was often dictated by the liturgical calendar. This is to say that events in Christian denominations such as the birth of Christ (Christmas), the Resurrection (Lent and Easter), and significant feast days of saints in between determined what celebrations happened when. This is why, to do this day, Easter’s date changes every year.

 Christmas, however, is permanently affixed to the 25th of December, and while many of us get the decorations out the minute Halloween is over, the liturgical calendar dictates when the holiday season “officially” starts; this is called Advent, celebrated as the first Sunday leading up to Christmas day. Not only does this kick off when we can light our candles and start making mulled wine, it was also the very start of the new liturgical year in the church. As such, in the Middle Ages, we will often see the first Sunday of Advent highlighting the first folios of many liturgical books, such as missals, in a particularly beautiful way.

MS RB54, fol. 4r, Ad te levavi, from the Russell Library.

MS RB54 is a missal (a service book for celebrating mass) compiled in 1529 that makes its home in the Russell Library at Maynooth. Despite not showing any visible musical notation, this is an inherently very musical book, wherein much of the text seen in this image would have been sung rather than spoken. This is something we also still do to this day, though more for the sake of music itself than anything else, but in the fifteenth- or sixteenth- century when RB54 would have been in use, it was much more practical than that. Without modern amplification, one voice could not be heard very well past the first few pews of the congregation, at least not in a cathedral. Singing was the original microphone, allowing the voice to carry farther and more clearly throughout the edifice. Here’s an idea of what this opening tune, or introit, would have sounded like (and you can even follow the text in the image with the words from the video!):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC4Bg3HlMys            

Though in Christmases present we have implemented hundreds of new carols and hymns to keep the festive spirit, some things never change. The rich magenta colour underlaying the large blue and gold ‘A’ in the folio above maintains a connection to the colours of the Advent season. Formal vestments are generally purple from the First Sunday, and Advent candles, whether in the cathedrals or at home, are typically purple or pink. This is the only significant use of magenta ink in RB54, making the old-fashioned festive flair that much more apparent.

Fos. 12r (left) and 13r (right), celebrating Christmas Day and St. Stephen’s Day respectively.

The above images take us later on in the Christmas season to the day itself and the delightful afters. On the left in folio 12r, the very ornate blue ‘P’ opens Puer natus est (‘unto us a child is born’), and folio 13r begins the feast day of St. Stephen, whose name can be found in red towards the bottom right column. Puer natus est goes a bit like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp-fWQxbtq0.

 Wherever you are from and whatever you believe in, the beauty of medieval manuscripts such as these in the Russell Library are for all to share in. MS RB54 will be digitized for online access but in the meantime, enjoy the festive and centuries-old wonder of the season at Maynooth and beyond.

The First Popular Picture Book for Children – Orbis Sensualium Pictus

By Yvette Campbell, Assistant Librarian, Special Collections & Archives

Everyone knows there is nothing like receiving (and giving!) a book for Christmas, especially for a child. Have you ever wondered what was the first popular picture book for children? Well look no further for a little bit of background information to use as a conversation piece around the cosy Christmas fire this year.

‘The Master and the Boy | Magister & Puer’ – from the 1777 edition

While cataloguing the early printed books in the Russell Library, I came across this charming and unassuming octavo sized book with the most exquisite but simple illustrations. John Comenius’ Orbis Sensualium Pictus (or The World of Things Obvious to the Senses drawn in Pictures) was a popular 17th century school book used in Europe for “the purpose of introducing boys to the knowledge of things as well as of Latin Terms, and furnishing their minds with a stock of useful ideas; in which, after many years of labour, it is no[t] uncommon thing to find them miserably deficient.” (William Jones, editor 1777)

Gymnastics and music (1777)

John Amos Comenius ( 1592-1670) published the Orbis in 1658 as an encyclopedic teaching device for young children that is also generally known as the first children’s picture book to be widely used. Comenius was an influential Czech teacher and education reformer, whom orphaned at a young age, did not attend school himself until he was sixteen. Comenius was an early advocate of formal universal education for all children including equality in female education, believing that every child should get to know themselves and the world by forming ideas through unrestricted play using pictures rather than words.

The Orbis features over 150 intaglio engravings made from copperplate prints showing everyday activities known to the world from cookery, making honey, learning the weather and studying virtues such as kindness, patience and fortitude. It also features a visualisation of the sounds animals make to better understand the world and the creatures that inhabit it. The book is divided into chapters on the physical and metaphysical world with an accompanying illustration. Each part of the illustration is numbered in an instructional manner and each number corresponds to a line of text. The text is printed in double columns in both English and Latin. This revolutionary format of illustrations coupled with simple sentences paved the way for the modern picture book for children that we see today.

‘Men are wont also to swim over Waters’ | ‘Solent etiam tranare aquas’ (1777)

There are references in the preface on the importance of allowing children to learn through their own senses and the importance of picture books as an instructional tool in the early stage of development before learning more “harsh” subjects such as grammar. Comenius writes:

‘Let it be given to children into their hands to delight themselves withal as they please, with the sight of the pictures, and making them as familiar to themselves as may be, and that even at home before they be put to school.‘…Then let them be examined ever and anon (especially now in the school) what this thing or that thing is, and is called, so that they may see nothing which they know not how to name, and that they can name nothing which they cannot shew.’

The book also has a lovely positive conclusion: ‘Go on now and read other good books’

This book not only teaches children about the world and how to name each object in Latin; it also teaches us today about how society lived in the 17th and 18th centuries, what educators knew and taught about the world at the time, what they felt was important to know and how children learned. This book will be of historical significance for those interested in primary and early childhood education.

The twelfth edition of John Comenius’ Orbis Sensualium Pictus is now catalogued and available on LibrarySearch. For access to this and other materials for consultation, please make an appointment by emailing Library.Russell@mu.ie or phoning (01) 708 3890.

Happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year to all our viewers and followers of MU Library Treasures from all in Special Collections and Archives at MU Library.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Five Women, Five Moments: an exhibition celebrating women in the archives at MU Library

by Róisín Berry, Archivist

Introduction

Each November archive professionals across Ireland and the United Kingdom find exciting new ways to promote their collections. ‘Explore Your Archive’ is an annual campaign organised by the Archives and Records Association (ARA), that highlights the best of archives and archive services. Its aim is to open archival collections to the public that are held in both private and public organisations through a range of activities. These activities are as varied as the repositories themselves, and can include tours, lectures, seminars, exhibitions, to name but a few. This year, the campaign runs from Saturday 25th November to Sunday 3rd December, offering a tantalising glimpse of some of the treasures held in our repositories nationwide.

^{Kilkock lease}

Special Collections & Archives at Maynooth University (MU) Library

In addition to our extensive rare books collection, Special Collections and Archives at MU Library is home to the archives of academics, writers, politicians, and activists. Archives can be defined as unique records or documents selected for permanent preservation because of their historical and evidential value. We are a collecting repository that acquires and administers archival collections of private origin, and this important material can be consulted in our reading room facilities. We actively collect documents relating to a range of different subjects, including local history, theology, literary figures, military history, and the archives of religious and teaching bodies. Our collections include the papers of Niamh Bhreathnach, James Cheasty, Teresa Deevy, Desmond Forristal, Pearse Hutchinson, Sir Edward Littlehales, Seán Ó Faoláin, and Ken Saro-Wiwa.

_{Selection of Documents from the Desmond Forristal Archive}

‘Five Women, Five Moments’ Exhibition

This year MU Library will celebrate ‘Explore Your Archive’ with a Sway exhibition entitled ‘Five Women, Five Moments: an exhibition celebrating women in the archives at Maynooth University Library.’ The exhibition highlights archival material relating to five notable women drawn from our collections in Special Collections and Archives, including Margaret Grubb, Caitlín Hutchinson, Teresa Deevy, Sister Majella McCarron, and Niamh Bhreathnach. The women selected are vastly different, but each has contributed to the history and culture of this island. The exhibition focuses on a key moment in each of the women’s lives, its impact, and the fascinating documents that help tell their story.

_{‘Five Women, Five Moments’ Exhibition}

We start with Margaret Grubb née Shackleton (1751-1829). Margaret was a Quaker of high standing in her community, travelling and preaching with other members of her family. She was a prolific writer of letters, many of which make up the Quaker Archive in MU Library today. Consisting of approximately 500 documents, the correspondence is mostly between Margaret and her sister Mary Leadbeater née Shackleton (1758-1826). They address the day-to-day lives of the women in their community, current affairs, and meetings of the Society of Friends. The collection offers a captivating view of life for Quaker women in eighteenth and nineteenth century Ireland.

_{Letterbook from the Quaker Archive}

Next, we have Caitlín Hutchinson (1888-1968). Born Kathleen Sarah McElhinney, Caitlín was a resolute republican and member of Sinn Féin in Glasgow, hosting many Irish republicans when they visited from Ireland on fund raising tours. One such tour included Constance Markievicz and the two women became correspondents and friends, with Markievicz painting Caitlín’s portrait. Caitlín also collaborated with many other leading figures in the movement including Margaret Pearse and Éamonn DeValera. She married Henry Warren Hutchinson in 1916 and documents relating to both Caitlín and her husband can be found in the archive of their son, Irish multilingual poet Pearse Hutchinson (1927-2012) in MU Library.

_{Photograph of Caitlín Hutchinson}

Following on from Caitlín we have Irish dramatist Teresa Deevy (1894-1963). Born in County Waterford, Teresa is known principally for her work with the Abbey Theatre in Dublin during the 1930s, one of the few Irish women playwrights blazing a trail at this time. The Teresa Deevy Archive at MU Library comprises a selection of documents relating to the Waterford writer’s work. It includes correspondence, theatre programmes, scripts, short stories, essays, articles, and lectures, providing researchers with a rare glimpse into Deevy’s creative output over many years.

_{Wife to James Whelan by Teresa Deevy}

MU Library is also committed to collecting the papers of political figures, including the archive of former Labour party member and Minister for Education, Niamh Bhreathnach (1945-2023). The archive consists of speeches, press statements and newspaper cuttings, and provides an overview of Niamh’s distinguished career in the world of both education and politics. Many of her achievements are reflected in the collection, including publishing the first White Paper on Education, abolishing third level tuition fees, and upgrading Regional Technical Colleges to Institutes of Technology.

_{Niamh Bhreathnach Labour Party Flyer}

Finally, we have educator and activist, Sister Majella McCarron (b. 1939). Irish nun Sister Majella moved to Nigeria in the 1960s and began lecturing at the University of Lagos. It was her work on behalf of the AEFJN (Africa-Europe Faith and Justice Network) that led her to discover the plight of the Ogoni people and to meet with Nigerian writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa (1941-1995). The Ken Saro-Wiwa Archive at MU Library contains letters between Sister Majella and Ken during his detention by the Nigerian government and prior to his execution. These moving documents highlight the importance of Sister Majella as both a friend and a voice within the international community during this last chapter in Ken’s life.

_{Photograph of Sister Majella McCarron}

For more information on these important women and their stories, the Sway exhibition ‘Five Women, Five Moments’ will run from Saturday 25th November to Sunday 3rd December. For further details please contact: library.specialcollections@mu.ie

Update: The Sway exhibition is now available to visit here.

https://sway.office.com/V1dtrKqSE37hJjgR

Joint tacketing

By Louise Walsworth-Bell Conservator

Books are three dimensional, mechanical structures and as such provide a complex series of problems when these structures deteriorate. 

Among the most common areas of damage are the joints and hinges, which bear an enormous amount of stress during opening and closing.  When these fail the boards become loose and can ultimately detach. Because of their role as a protective case, boards, once detached, render the textblock particularly vulnerable to further physical damage. Bindings are also a decorative feature of a book and the front and back boards are an integral part of this. Information in the form of labels, inscriptions and dates are sometimes found on the pastedown that part of the board next to the textblock and their loss too can be highly problematic. Retention and repair are therefore important.

Some of the tools used.

Ideally, the boards would be re-attached by a conservator, but this is a very time-consuming process and as a result many bindings are simply tied together using linen tape. In this way, all the parts are kept together and the detached boards still provide rigidity for the textblock. The sight of linen tape has become a common feature in libraries and is indicative of material highly vulnerable to future loss.  Joint tacketing is a practical process for the re-attachment of detached book boards. It does not pretend to be a full conservation process, but it does allow for the manageable repair of large numbers of bindings. The other advantage of joint tacketing is its reversibility. It impacts minimally on the look or condition of the original structure. Not all damaged bindings are suitable for joint tacketing. It does require that the area of repair is robust enough to support a working hinge. If the edges are crumbling or lost then the tackets, or hinges, will pull away the surrounding material causing further damage and loss.

Through these a thread hinge is tied, the loose ends being feathered out on the inside of the board. It is upon this thread-knot or hinge that the board opens and closes. The way a joint tacket works is that a very fine hole is drilled in both the spine of the textblock and the corresponding spine of the detached board.

These are positioned at the original sewing stations so the new holes follow the existing binding structure a copper wire loop captures the repair thread.

The thread is knotted at the text block spine, the thread tails are then drawn, from outside the board to its inside.

The board is then drawn into alignment with the textblock.

The knots are then tied off trimmed feathered and pasted down.

And we are left with a repaired board cover and obsolete cotton tying tape.

References
Robert Espinosa & Pamela Barrios, ‘Joint Tacketing: A Method of Board Reattachment’ in Book and Paper Group Annual, 10 (1991) available on the web
Jane Greenfield, ABC of bookbinding (New Castle DE: Oak Knoll Press, 1998)
Thanks to: Matthew Hatton and Ray Jordan of Trinity College Dublin, for their fabulous workshop on joint tacketing held last year.