Explore one of the world’s biggest record collections:
The British Library has one of the largest sound collections in the world, with over seven million recordings. What do they choose to conserve? How do they do it? Watch journalist Mark Ellen go behind the scenes of the British sound archive, and talk to the Library’s Will Prentice about their plans to digitally preserve the British nation’s sounds.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02w1ds4/player
The Shaughraun
30 July – 1 Sep | 7:30pm (Tue – Sat) and 2:30pm (Sat + Sun)
Written in 1874 by the Irish master of melodrama Dion Boucicault, the themes in this play still ring true – from vulture bankers, rising rents and homelessness, to Anglo-Irish relations and impending Brexit doom. But can love conquer all? That is the question… Smock Alley’s production is a modernisation of this melodrama, musically underscored and imagining ourselves in another post crash Ireland. Is history always destined to repeat itself?
A heart-racing, fast-paced, comedy of sorrows, incorporating hunger, greed, love, loyalty, and a fall off a cliff!
Historical tours of the theatre one hour before every show.
Dinner, drink & show for only €30
Sunday brunch & show for only €27
Use the code ‘shaughingprice’ to avail of show tickets for only €14.
Offer ends on Sat 7 July!
Annual Commemoration and Wreath Laying Ceremony this month
On July 17 2018 at 12 noon, the annual commemoration and wreath laying ceremony will take place at the Irish National War Memorial, Island bridge, Dublin 8.
For more details go to www.militaryheritage.ie
Artefact from Irish Woman in 1700’s sold at auction
On 18th June, an unusual artefact that contained an entire family history across two continents, was sold at auction. A flame stitched embroidered pocket book, made circa 1760 in America by a young Irish woman, Rebecca Ann Colt born ca. 1747.
It passed by descent, and wasn’t opened for over 100 years. In the 1890s, a curious descendant opened the purse to find Rebecca’s marriage from 1765, and a miniature portrait of the young woman, inside.
Write to us, if you know anything further about the Irish origins of Rebecca Colt.
Read more about Rebecca below:
Rebecca Colt, of Irish descent, married first James Dixey of Georgia. Within a year she was a widow aged 18 years, with an infant son James Dixey.
In 1765 she married a second time, to Thomas Carr, son of Mark Carr, one of the earliest European settlers and largest landowners in Sunbury, Georgia. In the 1740s the Carr family emigrated to American, as the result of a scandal. Thomas’ mother had eloped to Parish with her lover, abandoning her husband and children.
Settlers in Georgia were subject to attacks from the Spanish, Native Americans, and later the British during the War of Independence, and Thomas Carr was involved in many skirmishes and battles.
Rebecca was Thomas Carr’s third wife. He previously married Mrs. Cunliffe in Barbados, with whom he had two children Jane and Mark William; His second wife (name lost, unfortunately) died in child-birth leaving a daughter Ann Carr. Aged 18, Rebecca became step-mother to three children including an infant. Rebecca had two children, Rebecca Rose Carr born ca. 1766 and a son Thomas William Carr born in Savannah in 1770.
By the 1890s Rebecca’s grand-daughter Fanny, bequeathed it to her nephew. On examination, his wife found a parchment wedding certificate for Rebecca’s second marriage to Thomas Carr and Rebecca Ann Dixey, stating they had married in England 22nd December 1765; the marriage was re-certified in Sunbury, America, 8th June 1767.
By the 1890s this decorative item was bequeathed by the lady’s grand-daughter to a nephew, J.W. Carr of Maidstone, Kent. On close examination, Carr’s wife discovered inside the purse, a copy of Rebecca’s marriage, in England December 1765, and re-certified in Georgia June 1767. Even more intriguingly, was a miniature of the young Irish woman, Rebecca.