2013 Press Releases

Great Book of Ireland finds a home at UCC

28 Jan 2013
Homepage image: President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins, examines The Great Book of Ireland, joined by fellow contributors Seamus Heaney and Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill (Photo by Tomas Tyner).

UCC marked the acquisition of The Great Book of Ireland, Leabhar Mór na hÉireann, on Friday 18 January 2013. Re-live the moment by watching this webcast.

 

At the special ceremony in UCC, President Higgins was joined by contributors to The Great Book - including poets Seamus Heaney and Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill - in celebrating this magnificent modern artefact and its acquisition by UCC. 

As part of the ceremony, President Higgins, himself a contributor to the Great Book, signed the page containing his original handwritten poem, which he first composed in 1990. The score of a musical composition in the manuscript by Horslips member, Jim Lockhart, received its world premiere at the event.

The Great Book is an extraordinary vellum manuscript comprising the original work of nine composers, 121 artists and 143 poets, including three literature Nobel Laureates: Samuel Beckett, Seamus Heaney and Derek Walcott.  Produced in Dublin between 1989 and 1991, it has been acquired by UCC to be preserved and displayed by the University for posterity, on behalf of the Irish people.  It was created - and has now successfully served- as a fundraising venture to advance the development plans of two charitable status organisations, Clashganna Mills Trust, a charity working for people with disabilities, and Poetry Ireland/Éigse Éireann, the national poetry organisation.

 

 

The next phase of the project includes plans for the professional conservation of the manuscript; the publication of an anthology of the poetry; the creation of facsimiles of The Great Book; and the ultimate development of an exhibition and an exhibition space.

The editors of The Great Book of Ireland are Theo Dorgan and Gene Lambert.

University College Cork

Coláiste na hOllscoile Corcaigh

College Road, Cork T12 K8AF

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