Excellent use of the Heritage Lottery fund (the British one, that is), in donating generous sums to that great Belfast institution The Linen Hall Library. What most people this side of the Border remember about it, if they know anything at all, is that Thomas Russell, The Man From God Knows Where, was, for a time, its librarian. From 1794 until his arrest in 1796. The library's Newsletter, recently arrived, is airily talking in even bigger sums than the £1,822,000 from the Lottery. It carries a picture of guests at the new premises in Fountain Street, just behind, which included "a distinguished assembly of members, friends, supporters", and, of course the media. But the total project cost is estimated at over £3 million. There is to be more from Lottery and other sources, leaving half-a-million pounds to fully fund the entire project. What a venture. Haughey-esque. And a long way from Russell's original budget of £30 per annum, later raised to £50.
Moving with the times, indeed, for the Newletter announces the first woman president of the Library. She is Dr Maurna Crozier, a graduate of Queen's and currently Development Officer (Cultural Traditions) with the Community Relations Council. Which recalls the earlier woman of outstanding achievement, Mary Ann McCracken, in the library in the place of her brother Henry Joy McCracken, executed for his place in the 1798 Rising. A splendid book about her by Mary McNeill was published in 1960 by Allen Figgis and Co. It gives a fine overview of the period. She lived to 1866, having been born in 1770. May the organisation flourish and bring heart to Belfast in these bumpy times; bumpy but showing a promising way forward.
Denis Carroll, in his book on Russell, gives us the spirit of those times. Edward "Atty" Bunting's proposal to issue a collection of Irish airs and melodies, garnered throughout Ulster and Connacht, was fostered by Russell at the library. Never mind Wolfe Tone's aside in his diary about the harpers' festival: "Strum, strum and be hanged"; Russell not only thought well of the Bunting musical revival, but immersed himself in the Irish language. £10 per year, Denis tells us, was devoted to buying Irish books and Russell himself took lessons from Patrick Lynch of Loughinisland, a professor of Irish. Did the musical revival spark off the Gaelic League a century later? Or help to? We owe a lot to Belfast.
Denis Carroll's book: The Man From God Knows Where, is published by Cartan, an imprint of The Columba Press.