A NEWSDESK diary from 1916 is among items donated to Dublin City University’s library for its Media History Collection, which was launched yesterday.
The diary, from the Irish Independent, records the jobs allocated to reporters each day. In April, events such as the Drapers’ Assistants’ Convention, the Fr Mathew Feis, and the viceregal visit to Belfast are listed but the words “revolution breaks out in city between 11-12 noon” is scrawled across one page. The following pages are blank, apart from the word “revolution”.
The diary was donated by Gerry Murphy, a descendant of William Martin Murphy, the newspaper proprietor who led the employers in the 1913 lockout.
Paul Sheehan, DCU director of library services, said the collection had got off to a good start with many valuable donations.
It has received, or been promised, records relating to the Interim Radio Commission, the Commission on the Newspaper Industry and the Forum on Broadcasting.
Donations include the private papers of former Irish Times editors Douglas Gageby and Conor Brady; broadcaster Desmond Fisher and former ombudsman Michael Mills. The collection will also house the archive of Kevin Kenny, who founded Ireland’s first full-service advertising agency and managed the production of Patrick Pearse’s journal and Arthur Griffith’s Sinn Féin yearbooks.
The donation from Mr Gageby’s family includes many volumes of his editorials which were pasted into the books.
The collection also includes the diaries and correspondence of Seán Lester, of the League of Nations. It includes letters from James Joyce and a record of a meeting they had not long before the writer died.
Items donated will go into safe storage but will later be available for public viewing.
