Lobháin An Coláiste Éireannach

BELL DINGS

Here we have the original foundation stone

laid by Albert and Isabella.

In its original location,

this was the most powerful couple in the Spanish lowlands coming

and giving up their time to lay the foundation stone.

This particular college went on to perform another type of role,

to be, erm, powerhouse of research

and a powerhouse that would influence thinking back in Ireland.

The Franciscans set out on a project that they called the Grand Project

and it was... I suppose you could say it was nothing less than to...

I'll not say, "create an Irish identity"

but consolidate an Irish identity.

So this is the Teagasg Criosdaidhe and our edition is... This one here

is second edition which was printed in 1707.

Oh, yes, and this is Giolla Brighde O hEodhusa.

-You'll see it was also printed in Leuven.

-Yes.

It was the first book printed by the Franciscans in Leuven using

the Gaelic type.

So this was the Gaelic type that they had created themselves

and the 1618 copy... Edition, I should say.

..is the first book that was printed on the printing press.

Scathan shacramuinte na haitridhe ar na cuma don bratair

bor dord San Froinsias. Aodh Mac Aingil.

This particular book has been rebound.

-You'll see this, the nice detail here...

-Yes.

..on the endpaper. So it was rebound in Dublin and, unfortunately,

as you can see, during the rebinding process

-some of the running titles have been... have been lost.

-Goodness.

Which is unfortunate but overall

it's in actually very good condition.

So the book would have been slightly bigger but you could see how,

-if I may touch it slightly...

-Yup.

..that you could actually have this book...

Go around, do your sermons, really

and carry this here very portably.

A little livre de poche, as they say in French.

But certainly a lot packed in here to these wonderful...

And as you say, and you'll see from a lot of these books,

they are quite small in nature and that was

because they would have been easy to conceal.

OK, so if you had, for example, this particular volume here, if you

had that in your hand you could conceal that under your sleeve...

-Yes.

-..if you were found with it.

This is the first volume of the Annals Of The Four Masters.

Here you have a little insert before the Annals begin,

proper begin, which is highlighting the names of the copyists,

the Four Masters and the others who copied out all the data

in the Annals and it's replicating...

another copy's signatures.

So we see here these copies of the Annals in the 17th century

but the fact that they had this printing press at Leuven,

you almost would have wished that in Ireland

they could have had this stuff printed in the 17th century.

I think it would've made a massive difference to the language

had that've been the case.

Yes, and I think for a number of reasons, obviously, it didn't happen

and eventually was only published in print in the mid-19th century

in Ireland by the great John O'Donovan, the Irish scholar.

So, really, for more than two centuries,

it's in this manuscript form and just with two copies made,

so it's very sad, really, that it was in abeyance for so long.

And Leuven - it's almost like this history factory

is taking place and I don't think, generally in Ireland,

they don't really realise how much really went on from Leuven

and how indebted Ireland is in particular to

the setup in Leuven where these Ulster scribes were there.

And they're getting... The place is falling apart.

There's a political upheaval, there's religious upheaval

and these people sit down and say,

"Right, we're going to plan out

"and are going to get a structured history of the secular history

-"and the ecclesiastical history," and they set about it.

-That's right.

And they saved so much, really, by making, er...

By working from other copies and other books,

they saved so much in the Annals that they compiled which would be

completely lost to us but for them.

We get the sense of a close of an era almost with his passing.

Yeah, and I think the Four Masters, in a way,

are acknowledging that because they close out the Annals with

the death of Hugh O'Neill in Rome and it is like, you know,

closing the book and the end of an epoch, really, in Irish history.

It's, er, I think it's really poignant, really.

The Irish Franciscans have left us quite an important legacy.

First of all, they've left us the relationship with this city

and the university, traced back 400 years.

And then, of course, they've given us

the inspiration that lies behind the work we do today serving Ireland.

But also, in building these networks that we are currently doing

to promote Irish studies at centres across Europe,

this is following on exactly the same type of network

Ward and his colleagues were developing in their work

on the Grand Project

in the early part of the 17th century.

There's an enormous parallel and we can't

but recognise that we're influenced by the work that's going on here,

that has gone on here in the past.

"One of the things in the college which entrances me

"is the carved letter L, a character from the font developed

"here by the Irish Franciscans in the early 17th century.

"It was a print I encountered in my first years learning Irish

"when I found that the letters of the alphabet have an ancient

"and Achaean association with trees.

"The letter L, for example, is linked to luis, the rowan tree.

"And in the corpus of treelore,

"the rowan tree is associated with the art of divination.

"In this carved character, therefore, it would be possible

"to divine the history of Ireland

"and the continuous forging of Irish identity.

"It is like a seal of that identity,

"a reminder of the importance of the leabhar - book

"and learning and, indeed,

"Lowen and Leuven and Louvain

"and our national story and ever forming and reforming identity."