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SÍLE DE VALERA T.D.
MINISTER FOR ARTS, HERITAGE, GAELTACHT AND THE ISLANDS,
ON THE OCCASION OF THE TERCENTENARY OF THE FOUNDATION OF MARSH'S LIBRARY
IN THE IVEAGH HOUSE BALLROOM
8^TH NOVEMBER 2001,

Your Graces, Reverend Gentlemen, Ladies and Gentlemen, I wish to thank you all for attending here this evening to mark this wonderful occasion.

It gives me great pleasure to host this State Reception to mark the Tercentenary of the foundation of Marsh's Library, the first public library in Ireland.

Narcissus Marsh was born in Hannington, Wiltshire in 1638. He was educated at Oxford and was ordained a clergyman in the Church of England in 1662. At Oxford he studied philosophy, mathematics and oriental languages.

In 1678 the Duke of Ormond, and Dr Fell, offered Marsh the Provostship of Trinity College in Dublin. He accepted and was sworn and invested Provost in January 1679. In Trinity he completely reorganised the Library. He supervised, with the help of some Irish scholars, the transcripts of Bishop Bedell's manuscript of the first translation of the Old Testament into the Irish language. Marsh sent the Irish transcripts to his friend the Hon. Robert Boyle who financed the first printing. This Irish translation of the Old Testament was printed in London in 1685.

Marsh was appointed successively Bishop of Ferns and Leighlin in 1683, Archbishop of Cashel in 1691, Archbishop of Dublin in 1694 and Archbishop of Armagh in 1703. He died in 1713 and is buried in the churchyard of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin.

Libraries existed in Ireland from the earliest times. They were extremely important for the religious and cultural life of this country. The earliest libraries were, as you would expect, monastic and their manuscripts represented the best of classical Latin and Greek writings. There were also some fascinating manuscripts in the Irish language.

During the Middle Ages libraries were all ecclesiastical. But with the development of the universities, new ideas in literacy developed in scholastic theology, philosophy, and in civil and canon law. Libraries were set up all over Europe although many of these libraries were restricted to specific groups.

The idea of building a library had first occurred to Marsh when he was Provost of Trinity College. He had observed how difficult it was to use the library there, as it was only open to the Provost and Fellows. On the 9th July 1701, the Dean and Chapter of St Patrick's Cathedral granted Archbishop Narcissus Marsh permission 'to build and erect and place several pillars under the aforsaid Library of Lyme and Stone'.

Permission was granted 'because of the public advantage of so great a work'. And so began the building of the first public library in Ireland by Archbishop Marsh in 1701.

Marsh's is a magnificent example of a 17th century scholars' library. It contains a large collection of liturgical works, a great deal of theology and religious controversy. But the scope of the subjects is surprisingly wide and varied. There are books on medicine, law, science, travel, navigation, mathematics, music, surveying and classical literature.

The most important collection is the library of the Bishop of Worcester, Edward Stillingfleet, who lived from1635 to1699. In 1705 Narcissus Marsh paid £2,500 for this library of nearly 10,000 books.

Stillingfleet's library was regarded as the finest private library in England in the later part of the 17th century. When it came to Ireland it was described as 'This Golden Fleece'.

Dr. Elias Bouhéreau, a Huguenot refugee who fled from France in 1695, became the first librarian. His books, which he left to the Library, relate to France and to the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes and its aftermath, and the religious controversies of the 17th century. Bouhéreau's medical books are also of great interest.

The Bishop of Clogher, John Stearne, 1660 to 1745, bequeathed his books to Marsh's Library in 1745. These are similar to the other collections.

Marsh was particularly interested in mathematics, music, science and oriental languages. He collected books in Hebrew, Arabic, Turkish and Russian. His collection of Latin Judaica is particularly important. On his death Archbishop Marsh left all his books to his Library.

In addition to these four collections there are about three hundred manuscripts in the Library. The most important is a volume of the Lives of the Irish Saints, dating from about 1400, and written in Latin.

Marsh's Library was the first library in Ireland open to the public, and was for nearly 150 years the only library available to the public in Ireland. Throughout the 18th century other libraries were formed which were open to members or subscribers only.

In the 19th century the National Library opened to the public in 1877. The Dublin municipal libraries in Thomas Street and Capel Street were opened in 1884, followed by the Charleville Mall Library on the North Strand in 1900. Eventually public libraries were opened all over Ireland.

Over the past three hundred years some famous writers and scholars have used Marsh's Library. The most important is probably the great Dean of St Patrick's, Jonathan Swift. In the 19th and 20th centuries Tom Moore, Charles Robert Maturin, Emily Lawless, James Clarence Mangan, Bram Stoker and James Joyce all studied and read in Marsh's Library.

It has been said that Marsh's Library is an intellectual fossil, a collection of books frozen in time, which remain in the same place and on the same shelves where they were placed by the scholars who collected them. To study and examine the books in the Library is to explore a world, which is one of the hallmarks of Europe's great cultural heritage. The Library was always intended to be a working library; it has been used by scholars for 300 years, and its continues to be used to this day.

Over the past few years the Library has computerised its entire catalogue, and this can now be viewed on the internet by scholars from all over the world.

In recent years the Government and I have provided funding to the Library in recognition of its national importance. I have, together with the Office of Public Works, undertaken to maintain the fabric of the building.

Finally I would like to thank the Governors and Guardians of Marsh's Library, and of course, the Keeper Ms. Muriel McCarthy, all the Library's staff, and their predecessors for ensuring that now, 300 years after its foundation, Marsh's Library is, in every sense of the words, a National Institution of which the country may be proud indeed. I wish the Library well for the future and I would especially like to congratulate Muriel McCarthy for the great work she has done to mark this occasion and for her continuation of the great tradition of this wonderful Library.

Thank you.

Ends.