The National Library of Ireland holds one of the largest collections of landed estates papers in Ireland.  Landed estate collections often comprise of maps, rentals, leases, correspondence, surveys, wage books, accounts drawings and the working papers of a house and/or an estate. The collections offer remarkable insights into the social history of a community, tenants who lived on an estate and in general reflect the history of modern Ireland.

This seminar, jointly organised by the National Library of Ireland and the Centre for the Study of Historic Irish Houses & Estates at the Department of History, Maynooth University brings together historians, heritage practitioners and librarians to offers new insights into the potential that landed estate collections hold.

Seminar Programme

10am |  Welcome address: Dr Audrey Whitty, Director of the National Library of Ireland

10. 15am | Panel 1

Terence Dooley, Forty years of researching NLI landed estate records: delights and frustrations

Ciara Kerrigan, A guide to using National Library Landed estate collections

Brian Fennell, The diaries of Sir Thomas Grattan Esmonde during the Irish Civil War in NLI collections

11.40am | Panel 2

Mary Heffernan, Connecting the Clonbrock archive in OMARC with the NLI

Aidan Gilsenan, The Land War and agrarian conflict in NLI collections from 1879

Declan Brady, Landlords and Local Politics: what can be found in land and estate records

Lunch 12.40-1.30 | Please join us for complementary tea, coffee and sandwiches.

1.30pm | Panel 3

Cora McDonagh, ‘Captured cannon and the Wicklow Wilsons’ in the Landed estate records: A social study of art acquisitions, loan exhibitions and auctions, 1750-1916

Ronnie Connolly, Southern Irish unionism from the archives of landed estates in the NLI

Oliver Whelan, Henry Bruen and his Carlow tenants, 1879-1905

2.40pm  | Panel 4

Eamon Healy, Landed estate records as genealogical sources in the NLI

Ciaran Reilly, New avenues for research in the NLI collections

3.30pm | Closing remarks:  Dr Sinead McCoole, Head of Exhibitions, Learning and Programming, NLI

About the Speakers

Declan Brady is a research historian, educator and professional genealogist. He completed his PhD, ‘The Evolution of Local Politics in North County Dublin, 1870-1948’, at Maynooth University where he teaches. He is currently working on a publication for Fingal Local Studies & Archives on Politics and Democracy in Fingal, 1924-1939.

Ronnie Connolly is a retired civil and public servant who worked for over forty years in various government departments and semi-state companies.  Ronnie holds a Certificate in Local Studies, a BA in Local Studies and a Master's in Irish History, all from Maynooth University.  Ronnie's research interests include local government, petty session courts, poor law guardians and landed estates. Ronnie is also a part-time genealogist and a member of several local history groups. His BA thesis was on the Petty Session Court in Raheny village 1904-1914, while his Master's and PhD Dissertations were on WJH Tyrrell (1852-1933) of Ballindoolin House, a midland's land agent. 

Terence Dooley is Head of Department, Full Professor of History, and Director of the Centre for the Study of Historic Irish Houses and Estates at the Department of History, Maynooth University.

Brian Fennell is a Stackallen-funded PhD candidate in history at Maynooth University, researching the role of aristocratic senators in the Irish Free State, 1922-1937. His work explores the political influence of the aristocracy during this period and their impact on Ireland's evolving identity.

Aidan Gilsenan is a third year PhD student in Maynooth University department of history. He is a recipient of funding from Research Ireland. 

Eamon Healy is a PhD candidate in the History Department at Maynooth University, working under the supervision of Professor Terence Dooley. A Galway native living in Dublin, in 2019 he was awarded the Lord Mayor of Dublin’s prize for a dissertation exploring the effects of the Great Famine in Gort, Co. Galway. This study became the basis of his thesis which is a comparative study of two poor law unions during the Famine. He works full-time as a professional genealogist for Ancestry.com and is passionate about several broad aspects of Irish life in the long nineteenth century, particularly agrarian resistance, the Irish Poor Law, sports history, and landed estates. His talk today will focus on using landed estate records in genealogical research.

Mary Heffernan is Head of National Monuments, OPW.

Ciara Kerrigan is Assistant Keeper I - Special Collections at the National Library of Ireland.

Dr Sinéad McCoole is Head of Exhibitions, Learning and Programming at the National Library of Ireland since November 2023. She has been a Curator of exhibitions on Irish history and Irish art both Ireland and the US. She has written extensively in the area of modern Irish History. She was a member of the Expert Advisory Group on the Decade of Centenaries from 2012-2023. Historical & Curatorial Advisor to the Ireland 2016 Centenary Programme, An Ex-Offico member of Vótáil100 and led on DOC women’s strand, curating the online platform www.Mná100.ie

Currently Sinéad represents the NLI on the Board Member of Museum of Literature Ireland and also is on the Board of the International Association of Women’s Museum and an invited member of FIRN, a global network funded by the Canadian Government which sets out reimaging gender justice through creative and art based adult education, research and curation in museums, libraries, heritage sites, universities and communities.

Cora McDonagh was awarded a PhD in 2024 for her thesis 'Irish country house collections, display and dispersal: A social study of Irish art loan exhibitions and auctions, 1798 - 1916’ at Maynooth University where she was under the supervision of Professor Terence Dooley and Dr Alison FitzGerald. In 2019 she was awarded a four-year John and Pat Hume Doctoral scholarship. Her other scholarships and bursaries include the 2019 Desmond Guinness Scholarship (The Irish Georgian Society), the 2019 Kevin B Nowlan Bursary (The Castletown Foundation) and in 2021 the Sir Alfred Beit Research Bursary for research on the art collection at Russborough House. In 2023 she completed a post-doctoral research project for the RDS Library and Archives where she conducted research on the Great Industrial Exhibition of 1853. From their archival records she co-curated two exhibitions on the role of the RDS in the organisation of the 1853 exhibition and these were on display at the RDS Library and the Royal Irish Academy Library.

Ciaran Reilly is Assistant Professor in History at the Department of History, Maynooth University and Assistant Director of the Centre for the Study of Historic Irish Houses & Estates.

Oliver Whelan retired from his position as Director of government borrowing and debt management with the National Treasury Management Agency and afterwards undertook the study of history at Maynooth University where he was awarded a PhD degree in 2024.

Audrey Whitty is the Director of the National Library of Ireland.

About Centre for the Study of Historic Irish Houses & Estates

The Centre for the Study of Historic Irish Houses and Estates (CSHIHE) sits within the Department of History at Maynooth University. It is a unique public-private venture, supported by the Office of Public Works as well as a number of private benefactors. It aims to secure and enhance public appreciation of historic properties by supporting education, research and scholarly publication. In addition to promoting research into historic houses, their estates and families, third-level educational initiatives have included the development of undergraduate modules on the social, political, economic and cultural history of Irish country houses, their architectural evolution, their material culture and the creation (and destruction) of their surrounding landscapes.