Dun’s Library – New Acquisitions
During the first couple of months of 2012 we have received a variety of new accessions to the collections in Dun's Library, which highlight the diversity of the library's collections.
Dr Micheal O'Dowd, Fellow of RCPI and current Chair of the
Institute of Obstetricans and Gynaecologists has donated copies of his two works on the history of obstetrics and gynaecology;
The History of Medications for Women, published in 2001, and
The History of Obstetrics and Gynaecology co-authored with Elliot Philipp and originally published in 1994. Dr O'Dowd has also presented a copy of his recent historical fiction work,
The Scarlet Ribbon, which tells the story of a man midwife in the 18
th century, more
details here.
Another new donation is
The Flame and the Candle. War in Mayo 1919-1924, kindly donated by the author Dominic Price. The book tells the story of the men and women active in Mayo during the War of Independence and Civil War, and how the county eventually adapted to peace. Dominic Price carried out some of the research for this work in RCPI's archives, making use of the diaries of
Dr Kathleen Lynn, the Mayo born doctor and Sinn Féin activist. In October 1924 Kathleen Lynn attended the funeral of John Maguire, a Mayo Republican soldier executed in April 1923, whose body had just been returned to his family. Lynn recorded the event in her diary;
'They had high Mass at 9 here for poor Maguire, the farther & mother wonderful, by road to Headford, meet 8 other funerals, terrible showers, procession on Donaghpatrick, 20,000 there, staters (sic) round graveyard, one huge grave for the 9, all R.C. honours. McDevitt & I spoke. Put laurel wreath in grave'.
The final new accession was requested by the newly established
Office of Traffic Medicine, a joint initiative between the Road Safety Authority of Ireland and the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. The aim of the Office is to develop and implement a national framework on standards in traffic medicine, to advice on public policy and promote understanding, education and research in this area. Prof. Desmond O'Neill has been appointed as the National Programme Director for Traffic Medicine, and you can find out more about the
Office and its initiatives here.
The book requested was
Traffic Safety by Leonard Evans (2004) which uses scientific methods to examine the deaths, injuries and property damage from traffic crashes.
All these new accessions are now fully catalogued in the
library's online catalogue and can be consulted in the Heritage Centre's reading room. To make an appointment to view these, or any other of our holdings, please contact the
Heritage Centre.