Irish History

Early Modern

This is an introductory guide to resources available to students at Boston College on Irish History.

What's on This Page

This page has a lot on it. You can use the following anchors (links down the page) to jump straight to a relevant box.

Broad Digital Collections

These are collections with extensive content, covering dozens of topics related Irish history. We recommend trying each of these to see if they are relevant to your research.

JSTOR Images
Interface in English. Content mostly pictoral.
More than 4,000 digital facsimiles of material objects including lace as well as portraits, photographs, and more from 8 millenia.
BC login required.
Digital Public Library of America
Interface and content predominately in English.
Includes more than 10,000 digital facsimiles of material by and about Ireland housed in U.S. libraries, museums, and archives predominately from the 17th to the 21st centuries.
Open Acces.

Europeana
Interface in English or most major European languages. Content includes most textual languages.
Includes more than 80,000 digital facsimiles of material from Ireland, including photographs, paintings, textual documents, and ephemera (e.g., maps, clothing, etc.). Difficult to search by date but includes content from across more than 2 millenia. Excellent for material type or art names.
Open Access.
Gallica
Interface in French and English. Content predominately in French with some English.
France's fantastic digital library. Digitized periodicals, images, recordings, and more. Includes more than 55,000 digital facsimiles of books, maps, images, pamphlets, and more from or about Ireland predominately from the 17th to 21st centuries. Includes some older material.
Open Access.

HathiTrust
A digital repository for the nation's research libraries, HathiTrust brings together the digitized book and serial collections of major universities and other partner institutions, a significant portion of which is in the public domain and available full text. Boston College's status as a partner makes it possible for members of the Boston College community to download any of the out-of-copyright items as PDFs.
World Digital Library
The World Digital Library is a Library of Congress project sponsored by UNESCO. Items in this digital library, including books, manuscripts, photographs, maps and sound recordings, are individually described and searchable in seven languages. Most countries and regions around the world are represented.

Broad Digital Collections from Ireland

Digital Collections from the Library of Trinity College Dublin
Interface in Gaeilge, English, and multiple other languages.
Includes digital facsimiles of The Book of Kells ; the Robinson Collection of Caricatures ; an Oscar Wilde Collection ; the Papers of Major Richard William George Hingston ; and more.
Open Access.
Digital Repository of Ireland
Interface in English and
"The Digital Repository of Ireland is a national digital repository for Ireland’s humanities, social sciences, and cultural heritage data. You can browse and search across multiple collections from some of the finest Irish institutions. These collections are safely preserved in the DRI. Please explore and enjoy." Covers 2 millenia with focus on the 20th and 21st centuries.
Open Access.
Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive (UCD Digital Library)
Interface in English.
"Allows you to search, browse and explore a growing collection of historical materials, photographs, art, interviews, letters, and other exciting content, that have been digitised and made freely available." Includes the Urban Folklore Project, Dublin from 1979/80 ; the Boehm/Casement Papers ; Press Photographs of Eamon de Valera ; and more.
Open Access.
National Archives of Ireland: Online Exhibits
Contains curated, digital exhibits including digital facsimiles of pictures, paintings, letters, ballads, and more.

Searching the subject heading Ireland -- History -- 1691- in the library catalog will include some materials on this time-period, including:

A statement of the penal laws which aggrieve the Catholics of Ireland : with commentaries by Denys Scully 1773-1830
Call Number: BX1504 .S28 IRISH
Ireland's case briefly stated, or, A summary account of the most remarkable transactions in that kingdom since the Reformation by Hugh Reilly
Call Number: DA940 .R36 1695 IRISH

Publication Date: 1695
An act for the better securing the government by disarming Papists by Ireland
Call Number: DA946 .I735 1695 IRISH

Publication Date: 1695
A natural history of Ireland, in three parts by Gerard Boate, 1604-1650
Call Number: QH143 .N28 1726 IRISH

A collection of such papers as were communicated to the Royal Society.

For more Burns resources on specific topics, check the Burns Blog for posts on The Williamite War and The Penal Laws in Ireland.

Sources: Law & Gov. Docs

The journals of the House of Commons, of the kingdom of Ireland
Call Number: Making of the Modern World 1450-1850

Publication Date: 1753-91

28 vols. (Dublin, 1753-91). Portions available here.
Material as facsimile. Digital copies of intermediate to high quality.
BC affiliation necessary.
The Electronic Calendar of the Carte Papers
Call Number: Bodleian Libraries using Archive-It

Publication Date: 1660-87

Interface and material in English.
"A partnership between the Bodleian Library and the History of Parliament has resulted in the creation of a digital version of the nineteenth-century calendar of the Carte papers in the Library. The Carte papers in the Bodleian Library comprise vast collections of original papers from various sources which Thomas Carte amassed in preparation for the publication of his biography of James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond, in 1735-6."
Material in transcription.
Open Access.
Electronic Irish Statute Book (eISB), Pre 1922 Acts
Call Number: Government of Ireland

Publication Date: 1169 to present

Interface and most content in Gaelic and English.
Includes "Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 1801 to 1922" ; "Pre-Union Irish Statutes 1169 to 1800" ; "Statutes of Great Britain 1707 to 1800" ; as well as "Legislation Directory (LD) information in relation to Pre-1922 Acts."
Material in transcription.
Open Access.

State Papers Online : The Government of Britain, 1509-1714. Part III, The Stuarts and Commonwealth, James I - Anne I, 1603-1714: State Papers Domestic
Interface and content in English.
Includes part of the British National Archives' State Papers Ireland 1509-1782 Finding Aid.
BC affiliation necessary.

Statute rolls of the Irish Parliament, Richard III - Henry VIII by Ireland. Parliament (1297-1800); Philomena Connolly
Call Number: O'Neill Stacks KDK39 1484 LOCATE

Publication Date: 2002

Broad Collections with Gov. Docs.

Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)
Interface and content predominately in English.
Full text of significant English and foreign-language titles printed in Great Britain, along with thousands of important works from the Americas.
BC affiliation necessary.
HathiTrust
A digital repository for the nation's research libraries, HathiTrust brings together the digitized book and serial collections of major universities and other partner institutions, a significant portion of which is in the public domain and available full text. Boston College's status as a partner makes it possible for members of the Boston College community to download any of the out-of-copyright items as PDFs.

Sources: Literature

HathiTrust
A digital repository for the nation's research libraries, HathiTrust brings together the digitized book and serial collections of major universities and other partner institutions, a significant portion of which is in the public domain and available full text. Boston College's status as a partner makes it possible for members of the Boston College community to download any of the out-of-copyright items as PDFs.
Women Writers Online
Women Writers Online is a full-text collection of early women's writing in English, published by the Women Writers Project at Northeastern University. It includes full transcriptions of texts published between 1526 and 1850, focusing on materials that are rare or inaccessible.

Sources: Newspapers

17th and 18th Century Burney Newspapers Collection
The newspapers and news pamphlets gathered by the Reverend Charles Burney (1757 - 1817) represent the largest single collection of 17th and 18th century English news media. The 700 or so bound volumes of newspapers and news pamphlets were published mostly in London, however there are also some English provincial, Irish and Scottish papers, and a few examples from the American colonies, Europe and India.

O'Neill Library

Bapst Library

Burns Library

Educational Resource Center

Law Library

Social Work Library

Theology & Ministry Library

O'Connor Library

Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies

Irish History

Early Modern

What's on This Page

Broad Digital Collections

Broad Digital Collections from Ireland

Sources: Law & Gov. Docs

Broad Collections with Gov. Docs.

Sources: Literature

Sources: Newspapers