The Tholsel

The Tholsel building was a community resource and the use of rooms illustrates the political and social climate. While such events as scientific and literary lectures by the YMCA and […]

Seventeenth-century security concerns

While day-to-day affairs dominate the material, the earlier books nevertheless expose an undercurrent of tension and a concern for the security of the town, the strategic importance of which was […]

An ‘island’ of cosmopolitan culture: Anson’s Voyage round the world and the library at Bowen’s Court, Co. Cork

Commodore George Anson’s voyage is remembered as a classic tale of endurance and leadership in the face of fearful disasters, but to the British public of 1744 it was the […]

Disseminating Walter’s narrative

Richard Walter’s narrative was to become an eighteenth-century bestseller. With more than 1,800 advance subscribers, in England it went through four further editions before the end of 1748. Extracts were […]

Anson’s circumnavigation, 1740–4

On the outbreak of hostilities between Britain and the Spanish Empire in the Caribbean in 1739, George Anson was commanded to proceed from England to Manila to harass Spanish shipping […]