Sir, – Contrary to the view expressed by Prof Eunan O'Halpin (October 29th), I am delighted to inform him that the Jackie Clarke Collection is open to researchers.
Access to this archive, which Prof O’Halpin acknowledges as a “crucial and invaluable collection”, is available to scholars and academics by appointment, as is the case with similar institutions both in Ireland and around the world.
Material from the collection has been cited in numerous publications in recent years ,and the facility has had visits from researchers from almost every major institution in Ireland and many from abroad.
The “handful of items on display” that Prof O’Halpin mentions are in fact some of the most important material from Irish history, including both a 1916 and a 1917 proclamation, letters by Michael Collins, Douglas Hyde and Michael Davitt, Wolf Tone’s cockade and material covering almost every major episode of Irish history over the past 400 years.
I could go on but full details, including contact details for researchers, can be found on our website clarkecollection.ie.
Our visitors numbers, approaching 30,000 in 2016, compare most favourably with similar archive collections and are testimony to the public interest in these treasures which are on permanent display.
A searchable user-friendly inventory of the 100,000 items in the collection is available to all visitors and researchers and will be available on the internet in the near future.
The Jackie Clarke Collection opened at a time when this country was at its lowest ebb economically.
The fact that Mayo County Council continued to invest in the facility through those dark years is testimony to the philosophy of local authorities of providing access to important national resources at a local level in the community from which they have come.
To this end, access to both the treasures and the archive is free of charge. – Yours, etc,
AUSTIN VAUGHAN,
County Librarian,
Mayo County Library,
John Moore Road,
Castlebar,
Co Mayo.