Set beside the Rock of Cashel, the Bolton Library should be a major attraction. Instead it is struggling to survive, writes Mary Leland

It may be a small library in a small town, but the Bolton Library in Cashel, Co Tipperary, inspires passionate loyalty in its advocates. As well it might - a Heritage Council report on the library, made public in Cashel recently, spells out the perilous state of the library and its priceless collection of rare books and incunabula (early printed books), some to be found nowhere else in the world, many nowhere else in Europe.

"The Bolton Library has no money," reads the starkly worded report. "The love of its friends is not enough. Its collections are threatened by the most basic dangers of damp and decay. Poor environmental conditions, particularly high humidity, cause the books and documents to continue to deteriorate, and an acute lack of resources means that the library's continued viability is precarious in the extreme. Its potential for Cashel and the country is unrealised."

Ken Bergin is librarian of the special collections at the University of Limerick (UL) and now also works as academic curator of the Bolton collection. As he sees it, the history of the library is a history "of very well-intentioned people who really loved books and who have been trying to save it for decades. And it's never worked".

Guided by George Cunningham, of Roscrea, author and antiquarian and member of the university's governing body, UL has been involved in the support of the Bolton Library for nearly 14 years. According to Gobnait O'Riordan, director of library and information services in Limerick, UL has concentrated all its recent efforts on using the Heritage Council report as a "calling card" with which to attract the attention of the national funding agencies and cultural departments. Whether it will be, in fact, a calling card or a begging letter is yet to be determined.

To judge by recent history, Cashel (with the exception of the Cashel Heritage and Development Trust) and the country could hardly care less. The GPA Bolton Library, as it is now called to recognise a donation which helped keep the roof on, stands in the grounds of the Church of Ireland Cathedral of St John the Baptist and St Patrick's Rock just off the main street.

The cathedral close abuts the ancient walls of the town, and the cathedral itself is a replacement for the one which once stood on the Rock of Cashel (or St Patrick's Rock, hence the memorial name) but which, being almost ruined by 1749, was abandoned for the southern site. The cathedral and the library are at the edge of the medieval town, with the rock as the citadel on the northern side. A few hundred yards apart, both monuments frame the main street. From the upper window of the library, the rock can be seen presiding over all the roofs and gables of the town.

Both Ken Bergin and Gobnait O'Riordan agree that, given this geographical and historical consanguinity, it would make terrific sense if the Office of Public Works (OPW) could arrange a shared entrance ticket for the rock (250,000 visitors annually) and the library (500 visitors annually). A small share of the spoils would mean that a librarian could be employed at the Bolton, while also enhancing its value as a tourism venue. But the OPW, while a partner in the Heritage Council report, prefers to participate only as a "good neighbour" rather than set a ticketing precedent which might have to be copied at other locations.

APPOINTED ARCHBISHOP OF Cashel in 1729, Theophilus Bolton was a Co Mayo-born cleric and leading ecclesiastical lawyer with a strong sense of hierarchical status. He repaired the cathedral on the rock; engaged Sir Edward Lovett Pearse to design a suitable episcopal residence (which is today the Cashel Palace Hotel); introduced a public water system for the town; and added a wing to his palace to house his several thousand books.

This collection was further expanded by his acquisition of 6,000 volumes from the library of his deceased colleague and friend, William King, former archbishop of Dublin. That library is still considered to be the core of the Bolton collection.

At Cashel, the new archbishop was following in the notable footsteps of his predecessor, Narcissus Marsh, founder of Marsh's Library in Dublin. And Bolton had served as a canon of St Patrick's Cathedral when Jonathan Swift was dean. "Who but Lord Bolton was mitred for merit?" asked Swift in acknowledgment of his former canon's deserved elevation. But rather like Lord Nelson in leaving Emma Hamilton as a bequest to the nation, Bolton was a little too trusting in his successors when bequeathing the library in his will. It was to be kept in the diocese "for ever", for the use of the see and the clergy, but he left no endowment to ensure its survival.

Considering its contents, this was something of an oversight. Selecting examples from more than 11,000 items gives no idea of the quality and importance of what is kept in this modest building. Obviously there is a hefty amount of theological or spiritual works; it is especially rich in bibles and scriptural subjects, including a catechism printed in Weisenberg for the prince of Transylvania in the early 17th century.

Among the earliest folios is a 13th- century manuscript on vellum, bound in deerskin. There are mathematical and metereological treatises; drawings from Vitruvius; commentaries; histories; geographies; maps by Abraham Ortelius, cartographer to Philip II of Spain; disputations and literature covering authors from Chaucer to Dante, Shakespeare and Machiavelli. Examples of 17th-century printing in Ireland keep company with the leading European houses and titles published before 1500, including the Nuremberg Chronicleof 1493. There are three different editions of The History of the World, written in 50 BC by Diodorus Siculus, along with the Romulus version of Aesop's Fablesand a Hebrew translation of the Irish Book of Common Prayermade in Dublin in 1717. Irish manuscripts include Geoffrey Keating's Foras Feasa ar Éirinn(1716), as well as a first edition of Historiae Catholicae Iberniae Compendiumby Philippi O Sullevani Bearri Iberni, published in Lisbon in 1621.

Parliamentary debates and the Intelligencernewspaper kept the bishop up to date as he amassed this treasure-house of learning in many languages. The library also offers the authentic thrill of books bearing the signatures or symbols of previous owners, such as Catherine of Aragon or Francis Bacon.

THESE BOOKS COVER the issues and ideas of the world as King and Bolton understood it, all brought together in one small place in Co Tipperary. Incidentally, the inventory of all the parish records of christenings, weddings and burials still survives. That the library itself has survived is due to a succession of ex officio curators, deans of Cashel whose pastoral duties came to include the unsought care of one of the finest private libraries in Europe. True to their calling, they did not take their hands from the plough when faced with this inheritance.

The way was shown by archdeacon Henry Cotton, of the Bodleian Library in Oxford, who was appointed librarian in Cashel in 1822 and whose 40-year tenure included the building of the chapter house, now the library, designed by Clonmel architect William Tinsley.

When the post of librarian lapsed in 1909, the diocesan responsibility devolved on the deans, among whom Charles W Wolfe found the money necessary to produce the catalogue, compiled in 1973, which updated the 1873 version. Advised, wrongly, that as the library was basically theological, he could raise funds from the sale of surplus titles, Wolfe also sold several hundred volumes to the Folger Library in Washington.

Then, in a personal commitment inspired, according to Ken Bergin, simply by devotion - "if you love old books, you just love old books" - Robert S Matteson produced a catalogue of King's collection in 2003 after 30 years of self-financed research.

Carved into the stonework at the door of the cathedral is a memorial to dean George Woodworth, perhaps the library's most energetic evangelist. It was he who responded to the offers of support (prompted initially by Pat Donlon of the National Library) from George Cunningham of the University of Limerick, after years of trying desperately to raise awareness as well as cash on the library's behalf. His efforts included the sale of two valuable books, which he expected to create the ruckus necessary (as with Hereford Cathedral's proposal to sell its Mappa Mundi) to alert the country to the needs of the library. But the sale passed off without comment and Woodworth was once again left to the management of resources which by this time (with the proceeds from the books spent on reducing the debt) had dwindled from scarce to non-existent.

Matters improved with the agreement that UL would become the academic arm of the Bolton, and with the arrival of a cheque from philanthropist Louis Glucksman. But these developments came too late for George Woodworth, who died cutting the grass at home within days of the assurance of UL's commitment.

TURNING FROM HIS stool at the organ (on which the first performance of Handel's Messiahoutside of Dublin was played), the present Dean of Cashel, Dr Philip Knowles, describes both his sense of privilege at having the care of the Bolton and his feeling of relief that this is to be shared under the revised management arrangements.

There is a new bishop in the person of the Rev Michael Burrows, there is the formation of a trust, the preparation of plans for the conservation and repair of the collection and for special access for scholars, and, at last, a national statement of significance and of need in the Heritage Council's assessment both of the building and its precious, disintegrating contents.