Special Collections

Anne Yeats, daughter of W.B. Yeats and niece of Jack B. Yeats, was a renowned artist and theatre designer. This collection which comprises of several hundred art books and catalogues from her private collection were donated to the college for the particular benefit of ATU Sligo Art and Design students.

Several antiquarian books have been donated to the library including:

1. A treatise of the Laws of Nature by Richard Cumberland (1727)
2. Translation of Richard Cumberlands’s De Legebus Naturae (1672)
3.  An Experimental History of the Materia Medica by William Lewis (1768).
4. A Latin and Greek manuscript text by Saint Justin, published in 1593 (which is the oldest original item we have in the Special Collections)

This is a collection of works by Anglo-Irish writers from the late 19th century and early decades of the 20th century during what was known as the Irish Literary Revival, spearheaded by W.B Yeats.

A significant proportion of books in this collection are reprints of Cuala Press publications in hardback format. The Cuala Press was owned by sisters Lilly and Lolly Yeats, who published works by many of the great literary figures during this literary revival. This collection also boasts several original editions, including Celtic Twilight: men and  women, dhouls and faeries by W.B. Yeats dating back to 1893.



Punch was a very popular illustrated periodical or magazine which was first published in London in 1841. 

Also know as the London Chiavari, Punch was renowned for it's satirical commentary and caricatures on political and social issues. The holds a set of bound volumes dating from 1841-1891 featuring the first 100 published volumes of the magazine (incomplete, one missing).

Image: Punch Magazine Cover 26th April 1916. Volume 150, issue 390. Attribution: Richard Doyle (illustration), unspecified (colouring), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

This collection also includes several issues of a German political propaganda magazine from the 1930’s.

The Gaelige Collection include original copies of Thaddeus Connellan’s An English-Irish Dictionary (8,000 English words), 1863; Owen Connellan’s The Gospel according to St. John in Irish with an interlined English translation, 1830 and Donleavy’s Irish Catechism, 1848.

Other languages represented in this collection include original novels by 19th  century French  author Alexandre Dumas, Welsh Fairytales from early 20th century, poetry by Edgar Allan Poe poetry in Romanian.

This collection from a former member of the Sligo Field Club, contains several items including a 19th century edition of the Annals of the Four Masters.