This guest post is by Kevin Tuohy, a librarian and historian from Cork. He holds a Master’s in Library and Information Studies and currently works on archival and heritage projects across Ireland, with a focus on Irish-language collections, local history, and cultural preservation.
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| Cape Clear Island, overhead view, from the Cork County Council website. |
Introduction
In early 2025, I undertook a five-month archival and cataloguing project for the Cape Clear Heritage Centre in West Cork. The task: to process a large, unorganised bundle of personal papers, photographs, political pamphlets, and handwritten manuscripts belonging to the Ó Sé and Ó Coindhealbháin families. Donated to Dr Éamon Lankford’s Cartlann Chléire (Lankford Cape Clear Collection), the materials offered a rich but chaotic insight into 20th-century Irish cultural, linguistic, and political life.
This article outlines the process of transforming these vulnerable historical fragments into a structured, bilingual archive. It serves as a case study in applied library science, independent heritage work, and archival interpretation in a minority language context.
Project Background
The Ó Sé Family Collection (LCC58) was donated in 2024 by the descendants of the late Mícheál Ó Sé and Íde Bean Uí Shé, leading Irish-language and cultural figures. Their legacy, alongside that of Íde’s father, Seán Ó Coindhealbháin, and son Cian Ó Sé, touches on themes of Irish-language activism, Cork republicanism, women in sport, maritime traditions, and local folklore.
The collection, however, arrived at the Heritage Centre as a single, unlabelled bundle — with no existing catalogue, finding aid, or storage structure.
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| The archival collection pictured in the archive room of Áras na Gaeilge, Cork City. Picture credit Kevin Tuohy 2025. |
Methodology and Arrangement
The first stage was forensic-level appraisal. Without existing metadata, I grouped materials by provenance, condition, and language — with my fluency in Irish (including older orthographies and an Cló Gaelach), proving essential.
From there, I arranged the materials into 11 folders, each based on a principal figure and subdivided into themes: e.g. “Camogie and Women in Sport,” “Republican Commemoration,” “Irish-Language Journalism,” and “Maritime Research.”
Using consistent folder-level and item-level description, I produced an annotated, bilingual catalogue to archival standards. I prioritised contextual metadata: identifying obscure references, translating handwritten Irish-language documents, and linking materials to events such as the Fleadh Ceoil movement or the long-running Féile an Oireachtais festival.
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| The Ó Sé family collection divided into 13 folders. Picture credit Kevin Tuohy 2025. |
Challenges Encountered
- Many items were undated, handwritten, or incomplete.
- Materials were in older forms of Irish, requiring careful transcription and translation.
- Interpretation required significant historical and political contextualisation to distinguish between personal and public documents.
- The diversity of formats — essays, letters, pamphlets, artefacts, press cuttings — necessitated a flexible, inclusive cataloguing schema.
- Cataloguing this collection effectively also required an extensive knowledge of 20th Irish history, and Cork local history in order to fully understand the cultural, social and chronological context, and the milieu of Irish language revival, nationalist politics, and a understanding of Cork city cultural and social life in a period of time from 1890 - 2010.
- A knowledge of early 20th century Irish language publications, and key figures in the Irish language movement in Cork City in this period, was also essential.
Deliverables
- A detailed catalogue of over 300 individually described items.
- Folder-level descriptions, grouped by individual and theme.
- Bilingual contextual annotations for researcher accessibility.
- A physical arrangement plan and conservation-friendly storage system, now implemented.
- The compilation of detailed biographies relevant to the collection
Based on the knowledge I gained from studying these previously private collections—alongside interviews with surviving family members of the four individuals covered in this catalogue—I was able to compile detailed biographical material. I also drew on publications available online, at Cork City Library, and from primary and secondary sources within the Lankford Cape Clear Collection.
This broader context, compiled largely by esteemed historian, author, and Irish-language scholar Dr Éamon Lankford, provided valuable insights into the Irish language movement in Cork City and its surrounding areas during the 20th century.
Using this information, I created detailed biographies in both the Irish and English language for all four individuals in the catalogue. These biographies were designed to assist and inform researchers interested in the subject.
All biographical information was reviewed and confirmed by a surviving family member, Colm Ó Sé.
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| New building on Cape Clear Island which will hold the newly refurbished Cape Clear Heritage Centre. Image from echolive.ie. |
Impact and Significance
The collection is now research-ready and preserved in archival-safe conditions in Cartlann Chléire funded generously by Cork County Council, Údarás na Gaeilge and Fáilte Ireland. Its scholarly value spans Irish studies, gender history, maritime heritage, political history, and Irish-language activism. It is now the property of Cork County Council, and will soon be available for researchers in what is set to be one of Ireland's most important publicly accessible archives for researchers interested in the history of Cape Clear, the Gaeltacht, West Cork and maritime life among a wide variety of other topics.
The Ó Sé Collection has been numbered No.58 in a comprehensive 60 part collection of priceless artefacts, documents, facsimiles, manuscripts, and press material related to Cape Clear, West Cork and the Irish language in Cork city and county.
What makes the Ó Sé collection especially unique is its multi-generational scope: a family archive that reflects the evolving story of cultural resistance and civic engagement in Irish life across the 20th century.
Reflections
This project highlighted how local archives — often under-resourced and outside institutional structures — hold hidden national treasures. It also underscored the value of linguistic skill, cultural literacy, and patience in archival work, especially in minority language or politically sensitive contexts.
Cataloguing the Ó Sé Family Collection was an act of both preservation and interpretation. It demonstrated the potential of librarianship and archival practice not just to store history, but to reclaim it.
Further information about the Cape Clear Heritage Centre and Archive:
Cork County Council. (n.d.) Leabharlann Oileán Chléire. Corkcoco.ie. https://www.corkcoco.ie/en/directory/amenities/libraries/leabharlann-oilean-chleire
Cork 96 FM News Team. (2024, October). Cape Clear Island library officially reopens. 96fm.ie. https://www.96fm.ie/news/96fm-news-and-sport/cape-clear-island-library-officially-re-opens/
Lankford, É. (2020) Cape Clear Island Archive / Cartlann Chléire. Cape Clear Island Museum. https://capeclearmuseum.ie/archive/
A description of the archival collection and sub-collections at the Cape Clear Heritage Centre Archive (currently closed to the public pending the reopening of the museum and archive).
Mac Sweeney, T. (2023, September). Going Clear: Islanders plan big welcome for summer visitors. Echolive.ie. https://www.echolive.ie/corknews/arid-41229889.html
If you have queries about the project please contact kevinotuathaigh@gmail.com.
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