ARMAGH
PUBLIC LIBRARY & VICAR’S HILL No 5
Jonathan Swift and Tea Among the Tomes
I
was in invited to a tea. A tea in a public library. I thought, I
probably can’t get much of a story about a tea in a library.
I don’t write about cakes and jam. Boy, was I wrong. The small
casual tea was held in the Armagh Public Library, one of those stunning
old repositories of the 18th Century with ancient books of illustrated
manuscripts and early editions, on high wooden shelves, watched over
by the busts of stolid curly-wigged founders in white alabaster. The
Armagh Public Library is the oldest library in Northern Ireland, founded
in 1771. Not as large as say, the Trinity Library in Dublin (see Trinity
Library and the Book of Kells) or as important to a literary heritage
as Marsh’s where Bram Stoker researched (see Marsh’s
Library Dublin), but with a connection to local hero Jonathan Swift.
You’re probably not going to Armagh for the Library, but more
likely visiting because of St Patrick. Armagh is one of the principal
sites along the trail of St Patrick in Northern Ireland (see Saint Patrick's Trail). The Library and connected Vicar’s
Hall is just behind St Patrick’s Church and just a stones through
from the heavy stone which covers the place where the patron saint
of Ireland’s bones were laid. The Library was first the idea
of the visionary Archbishop Richard Robinson, who in 1771 planned to
establish a university in Armagh City to improve its stature. In 1773,
the city passed an “act for settling and preserving the Publick
Library in Armagh forever”. The library still remains, but the
university never quite happened.
Designed
by Thomas Cooley, the building houses the library and a Library Keeper’s
Residence. In its current form, an extension was added in 1848. The
nucleus of the collection is the Archbishop’s original
personal library contribution containing 17th and 18th Century books
on philosophy, theology, classic and modern (for the time!) literature,
medicine and law. Additional acquisitions have been added principally
on local history, church history, and Saint Patrick. The oldest printed
books in the library date from the 1480s, with earlier illustrated
manuscripts. But it is perhaps the copy of Jonathan Swift’s “Gulliver’s
Travels” which draws the most attention. Author Dean Jonathan
Swift, reputedly got the idea for the satiric adventures of his normal
sized hero among a land of miniature Liliputs and awaking tied on a
beach from the image of a hillside in view of Belfast which appears
much like a sleeping man. The
Armagh Library holds a copy of the printer’s
edition, dated October 28, 1726, with author’s corrections written
in Swift’s own handwriting. The actual book is sealed in a
case, but you can peruse a desk copy, to look intimately into the
work of
the writer, and the publishing process. There is also a photo copy
of the Book of Kells which can be handled (the original is in Dublin).
Also at the library, of special note to curio fans is a very
extensive
collection
of rare
cameo
dies, used to wax letter seals.
Vicars’ Hill No 5
The
Hill of Armagh is where St Patrick established his principal church
in Ireland in 445. More than one church has replaced the early simple
stone chapel, with the current St Patrick’s Cathedral dating
from the 10th to the 16th centuries. Behind the cathedral hill, next
to the library is the Vicars Hill No5, built by Archbishop Robinson
in 1772, the year after conceiving the library, intended as the Registry
of the Diocese, to deposit the records of the Church of Ireland and
city of Armagh. The records have moved elsewhere, with the hall now
a marvelous example of 18th Century architecture with its octagonal
dome and containing displays of ancient coins and gems, early Christian
artifacts; period prints and other curiosities from the collection
of the library which owns the Vicar’s Hill building. Activities
for kids include the chance to rub outlines of ancient coins, assemble
an interactive jigsaw puzzle
of old prints on a treasure hunt, and learn to write their name in
the old language of Ogham, from whence the city and hill get their
name.
Visiting Armagh Public Library and Vicar’s Hill No5
Admission to the library is free and the Vicar’s Hill exhibit €2 for adults and €1 for seniors. Children and students are free. Opening times are slightly shifted. For the Library – 10am to 1pm and 2pm to 4pm – Monday to Friday. For Vicar’s Hill No5, the same hours but Tuesday to Saturday. Armagh is about 40 minutes from Belfast and 2 hours from Dublin. © Bargain Travel Europe
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Armagh
Robinson Library
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SEE ALSO:
DUNLUCE
CASTLE - ANTRIM COAST
DRIVING
SCENIC IRELAND
ST DEINIOL’S RESIDENTIAL LIBRARY
