| ID | 18604 |
|---|---|
| Collection | The Timothy Looney Papers |
| Collection Description | Timothy Looney, a native of Cahir, county Tipperary, was born in 1914. A well-known local historian, he could regularly be found exploring local castles, churches, graveyards, and sites of archaeological interest. He was known to challenge established beliefs and traditions and to use the evidence of cross-disciplinary elements such as documents and landscapes to offer alternative interpretations. His house on Pearse Street, a treasure trove of maps, books, documents, and photographs, was a popular port of call for genealogists tracing their ancestors and for scholars researching historical topics. Looney’s collecting activities culminated in a remarkable salvage operation to recover papers from Shanbally Castle, county Tipperary prior to its destruction by a controlled explosion in March 1960. [University of Limerick Special Collections and Archives] |
| Collection Web Address | https://specialcollections.ul.ie/projects/looney-collection/ |
| Reference | P43 |
| Description | 23 standard boxes, 15 outsize boxes, 1 photographic box, 24 outsize items, 16 volumes (797 files). This collection comprises printed and manuscript materials primarily relating to county Tipperary collected by Timothy Looney, and research material assembled and generated by him for local history lectures and walking tours. The most notable element of the collection is the substantial quantity of estate papers relating to Shanbally Castle, Clogheen, county Tipperary, built for Cornelius O’Callaghan, 1st Viscount Lismore in c. 1810. The building was demolished in stages by the Land Commission between 1957 and 1960, during which time the bulk of the family papers were destroyed. The papers salvaged by Timothy Looney (for which see 1-440) include a near complete set of rentals from the early eighteenth to the late nineteenth century, a number of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century account books, extensive estate correspondence from the early nineteenth to the mid twentieth century, and a range of townland map surveys from 1715 to 1898 primarily for counties Cork and Tipperary. Clogheen Fever Hospital records (145-148) and the 1821 census records of Clogheen (526) are also worth noting, as is the unusually large set of correspondence between Viscount Lismore’s tenants in counties Cork and Tipperary and his agent William Rochfort from the turn of the twentieth century (209-378). The Looney collection further contains a small quantity of estate papers from Castle Hyde and Doneraile Court in county Cork, and Castle Otway in county Tipperary. |
| Access | By prior appointment, some material restricted |
| Date | 1715-1990 |
| Century | 18th, 19th, 20th |
| Keywords | |
| Note | University of Limerick Special Collections and Archives provide a catalogue to researchers: Conditions Governing Access: Unrestricted access to most items. Some items contain personal information relating to people other than Timothy Looney and are closed to protect individual privacy. These items have been identified in the descriptive catalogue. Donated to the University of Limerick by Timothy Looney’s children Mary Johannes, Kathleen Muir, Helen O’Sullivan, and John Looney on 20 June 2013. |
| Repository Name | University of Limerick Special Collections and Archives |
| Address | Glucksman Library University of Limerick Limerick City |
| Eircode | V94 T9PX |
| Telephone | (061) 213-158 |
| Email Address | specoll@ul.ie |
| Repository Web Address | https://www.ul.ie/library/explore-collections/special-collections |
| latitude | 52.67333 |
| longitude | -8.57350 |