A landmark study of Ireland’s centuries-old love of books has made its first appearance after 10 years of intensive academic research.
 
Spanning almost 1500 years, from manuscript to digital, The History of the Irish Book comprises five volumes, the first of which has just been published.
 
“This is an event of major significance because this is the inaugural volume of the first ever comprehensive history of the Irish book,” said Professor Welch, joint general editor of the project and Dean of the Faculty of Arts.

“It is the story of our relationship with the book as an artefact and as a literary, historical and information vehicle which has for long been at the heart of Irish society. In particular, it is an exploration of how it was produced and the influences that spawned its growth.
 
“The Irish are recognised as being great at talking but what isn’t sufficiently recognised is that the Irish are, and have been for a long time, an extremely bookish people.

“These volumes reveal the bookishness of Irish culture and a veneration of not just the spoken word but the written word. Indeed, they demonstrate the interaction between the oral and the written which stretches way back into the manuscript tradition.”
 
Oxford University Press is publishing The History of the Irish Book.  Publication will be completed by the end of 2008.
 
The project is a journey through the evolution of printing and the book trade and the social, political, commercial and religious influences which have impacted on books and publishing.
 
The monumental undertaking has been in gestation since 1996. The editors say they are confident it will lead to a new appreciation of neglected aspects of the roles, function and activities associated with our book heritage.
 
The other joint general editor is Professor Brian Walker of Queen’s University Belfast.
 
The first completed work is Volume III, The Irish Book in English: 1550-1800. Its editors are Professor Andrew Hadfield of the University of Sussex and Dr Raymond Gillespie of NUI Maynooth.
 
The five volumes will paint a picture of activity from 7th century hand-written Latin and later Irish manuscripts to the emergence of 16th/17th century printing in English, through 18th century colonial Ireland, 19th century upheavals and famine, the burgeoning nationalism of the 20th century State, the literary repression of the post-revolutionary period, to today’s global market.
 
 “The History of the Irish Book will show the variety of cultural activity in Ireland throughout its history and in particular the antiquity of Irish book culture,” said Cork-born Prof Welch, who is also a novelist and playwright.
 
“It is a history that goes back into the mists of time. This island has the oldest book history in Europe outside of the Greek and Roman traditions.”

 “The History of the Irish Book puts us ahead of many other academic communities in the study of the history of national book cultures,” he said.
 
Book history is a young and flourishing discipline internationally and the University of Ulster has appointed a lecturer in the history of the Irish book, Dr Andrew Keanie.

For further information, please contact:

David Young
Telephone: 028 90366074
Email: David Young