Irish Rural Libraries: Glimpses of the Past

Abstract

In Ireland between the years 1915 and 1917 the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust commissioned two reports into the situation of rural libraries. The reports found that the rural district schemes instigated by the Trust had, for the most part, been a failure. These reports were written by two men who worked tirelessly for the promotion of the library ideal, the (Abbey) playwright Lennox Robinson and a librarian from the Co-operative Reference Library, Cruise O'Brien, father of the political commentator Conor Cruise O'Brien. Their observations give a fascinating and humorous insight into the social standing of public libraries in the Ireland of the early 1900s and are of much value from a socio-historic point of view. They give a glimpse of a pre-industrial Ireland, a country very much rooted in an old rural way of life, suffering quietly from the ravages inflicted by war and poverty yet poised to become a new republic with all its attendant opportunities and problems. I would like to thank Fionnuala Hanrahan, the Wexford County Librarian, for her valuable advice while compiling this article.