The idiosyncracies of the avid collector's mind will be on display next Wednesday when the wide range of items put together by the late William Kearney comes up for sale at the James Adam salerooms. Kearney, who died last year at the early age of 59, was an enthusiastic collector all his life. In 1958, he joined Paul Johnston at the Georgian Shop in Dublin and later opened his own premises, Anticurios, on Clarendon Street. His range of interests was extraordinarily diverse, ranging from tribal art to Coptic manuscripts. His collections included English and Irish furniture, neolithic and early Christian artefacts from Ireland, stuffed animals and Far Eastern art.

It seems he also spent much time in research at libraries throughout the country to compile a complete catalogue of Irish gunsmiths and cutlers from 1600 onwards. This work was nearing completion at the time of his death and there are plans for publication at some future date.

In addition, he was closely involved in the restoration and refurbishment of Ardgillan Castle, near Skerries in Co Dublin. Many of the 450-plus lots being offered for sale on Wednesday were displayed in the castle during May and June of this year. Stuart Cole of Adam's describes the collection as "an embarrassment of riches.

The rarity of many of the items is belied by the numbers and breadth of the collection".

At its heart lies a wide range of material associated with the Irish Volunteers and the risings of 1798. While the latter are well-known, the history of the Volunteers is less familiar, despite the important role these groups played in 18th-century Ireland. Their origins lay in the Anglo-French wars of the mid-century and the American War of Independence, when the number of British troops stationed in Ireland was reduced but fears of enemy invasion increased. Accordingly, many local militia bodies were set up, primarily by Protestants, although there were some Roman Catholic units also.

The driving force behind such groups tended to be landlords in each area and therefore the Volunteers soon started to become a political as well as military group. Each group had its own distinguishing insignia, used on belts and swords, as well as presentation medals and banners.

The first Earl of Charlemont became commander-in-chief of the Volunteers in 1780 and together with Henry Grattan he was the organisation's most vocal presence in the Irish Houses of Parliament. The political ideas generated by the American and then French revolutionaries inevitably made an impact in Ireland, and these began to be articulated at the Volunteers' Dungannon Convention of 1782, after which parliamentary reform, Catholic emancipation and the removal of restrictions on Irish trade became their principal concerns.

The repudiation of these proposals by the Parliament in Dublin a year later signalled the beginning of the end of the Volunteer movement, which was formally crushed by the Government in 1792. New militias and yeomanry regiments then came into being and they were to be used in the suppression of the 1798 uprising. The sheer volume of Volunteer memorabilia in the Kearney collection is most impressive. There are, for example, no less than 52 Irish Volunteer and Militia cross belt plates with no duplication of the local groups represented; Stuart Cole estimates that on average only one such belt plate would come up for sale at Adam's.

Similarly, in the 10 years he has been with the auction house, he has seen only one Irish Presentation sabre being offered; there are 13 in the Kearney collection. He believes this is the most important body of Volunteer and 1798 material to have come on the market since Sotheby's sold the collection of Robert Day in 1913.

Nonetheless, estimates for individual items are not especially high, with belt plates expected to fetch between £300 and £500 each and with presentation sabres starting as low as £200, rising to £1,500. The 15 Volunteer and militia presentation medals vary in the prices they are presumed to make next week, with £300£500 being the average.

In addition, there are 31 powder flasks and horns, with estimates running from £20 to £700, 13 gorgets [metal badges worn on the breast by army officers] that are expected to make between £150 and £700 and a large number of 18th-century Irish pikes (£150£300).

Curiosities include 19th-century Japanese tsubas [ornamental metal plates which act as a sword guard on the top of scabbards] and examples of the curved Persian dagger called jambiyas.

The William Kearney Collection is being sold at the James Adam Salerooms in Dublin next Wednesday at 11.30 a.m. Previews tomorrow, from 2 p.m.-5 p.m. and Monday and Tuesday, from 9.30 a.m.-5.p.m.