Irish Studies Research Guide
Bibliographer for Irish StudiesIrish Language Resources
Books
- CUNY+
- Using a Subject begins with… search, search for Irish language to see the library's holdings in CUNY+, including dictionaries, bibliographies, and histories.
- Browsing
- Books on the Irish language can be found at PB 1214-1298. Look on Floor 3 for reference books and Floor 5 for circulating books.
- Recommended books
-
- The Pocket Irish-English Dictionary, English-Irish and Irish-English
- Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla (Reference Level 3 - PB1291 .O5 )
- Larger English-Irish Dictionary (Reference Level 3 - PB1291 .L3 1917)
- An Irish Literary Dictionary and Glossary (Reference Level 3 - PE2406 .W36 2001)
- Learning Irish: An Introductory Self-Tutor (Stacks Level 5 - PB1227.5.E5 O85 1988)
Web Resources
- Focal.ie
- An English-Irish terminology database.
- Gaeilge.ie
- A portal to a wealth of Web resources on the Irish language. The Media page provides links to podcasts, online magazines and newspapers and more. Site is available in both English and Irish.
- Daltaí na Gaeilge
- “Students of the Irish Language.” Includes grammar lessons, a list of useful phrases, and a discussion forum for questions. Please note that this work is done by volunteers, many of whom are still learning Irish.
- Focal an Lae—Irish Word a Day
- A blog offering a different Irish word every day, with sound recordings and example sentences.
- Twenty Year Strategy for the Irish Language, 2010-2030
- Explains the Government's policies to promote the use of the Irish language.
- Údarás na Gaeltachta
- The regional authority responsible for the economic, social and cultural development of the Gaeltacht. Site is available in Irish and English.
Databases
These databases will not help you to learn Irish, but they may help you to learn more about Irish.
- Academic Search Complete
- A general database with a little information on almost every subject, including articles on Irish language education, linguistics, and public policy regarding the Irish language. Try searching “Irish language” as a subject term.
- Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts
- Covers all fields of linguistics and all aspects of the study of language. “Irish Gaelic” is a descriptor.
- Sociological Abstracts
- A good source for information on the social issues surrounding the Irish language.
Irish Literature Resources
For more information on researching literature, please see our English Literature Guide.
Books
CUNY+
CUNY+ lists all of our books, journals, and other resources. Please note that you must search for books or journals, NOT for individual chapters or articles within them. You can do a keyword search for your topic.
You can also do a Subject begins with… if you know the subject headings.
TIP: Literary authors are subject headings. Example: Yeats W. B.
Topics within the subject will be broken down into subheadings to let you know what topics our collection covers. Criticism and Interpretation is often a useful one; so are the titles of particular works such as Cuchulain Comforted.
Other Useful Subject Headings:
- Celtic Literature
- English Literature—Irish Authors
- Irish Literature
Types of literature such as Epic literature are also subject headings. They may include subheadings such as Epic literature, Irish.
Call Numbers
You can also look for books near others on the shelf. Try Floor 3 for reference materials and Floor 5 for other books.
Here are some call numbers you might try:
- PB 1001-3029. Celtic Languages and Literatures.
- PN 2600-2602. Theater in Ireland.
- PR 8700-8899. Irish Literature in English.
If you don't have experience reading call numbers, this tutorial can help.
Databases
- MLA International Bibliography
- A standard of literary research. This should be your first stop when researching literature in any modern language. In the Advanced search, you can use National Literature to limit your search to Irish literature or language to limit to articles on works in Irish.
- JSTOR
- JSTOR archives the full text of journals in all disciplines. It is both possible and necessary to use more specific search terms than in MLA. For instance, a search for Gaeltacht autobiograph* retrieves 14 items in JSTOR and only two in MLA.
- Project MUSE
- Provides full-text access to a wide array of scholarly journals. Do a keyword search on your topic, or browse their journals on Irish Studies.
- Literature Resource Center
- A good source for general background information on authors, including biographies, overviews, interviews and more.
Web Resources
- CELT: The Corpus of Electronic Texts
- CELT is a searchable online corpus of multilingual texts of Irish literature and history, currently with 1058 available texts.
- A Database of Irish Women's Writing, 1800–2005
- A bibliographical database of Irish women writers who wrote in both Irish and English between 1800 and 2005, including a whole range of publications such as novels, articles, poems, memoirs, travel writing, essays, cookery writing, plays, films, etc.
- The International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures
- IASIL is an academic association promoting the study and teaching of Irish literature around the world.
Irish History Resources
For more information on researching history, please see our History Guide.
Books
CUNY+
CUNY+ lists all of our books, journals, and other resources. Please note that you must search for books or journals, NOT for individual chapters or articles within them.
Subject Headings—use Subject begins with… to search for these. Ireland--History is a subject heading. It is broken down into many subheadings describing periods of history. These may take several forms:
- Centuries, as in: Ireland--History--20th century
- More specific ranges of years, as in: Ireland--History--1910-1921
- Historical events, as in: Ireland--History--Easter Rising, 1916
- Types of resources: Ireland--History--Encyclopedias
If you are not sure what subheading to use try the Keyword in Subject search, which will find the appropriate terms in the subject heading only.
Browsing
Books on Irish history can be found at DA 990-995. Look on Floor 3 for reference books and Floor 4 for circulating books.
If you don't have experience reading call numbers this tutorial can help.
Databases
- Historical Abstracts
- Historical Abstracts indexes the world's periodical literature in history and the related social sciences and humanities. It covers the history of the world from 1450 to the present, excluding the U.S. and Canada. Using the Advanced Search, you can limit to articles covering a particular range of years.
- Project MUSE
- Provides full-text access to a wide array of scholarly journals. Do a keyword search on your topic, or browse their journals on Irish Studies.
- Social Sciences Full Text
- English-language journals in the major social sciences, including history. Abstracts to journal articles and citations to book reviews.
Web Resources
- CUNY Institute for Irish American Studies
- Includes information about events, research and courses related to Irish and Irish American Studies at CUNY.
- History of Ireland: Primary Documents
- An index of historical primary documents around the Web. Organized by historical period.
- IBIS (Institute for British and Irish Studies) Links
- An excellent, selective and well-organized collection of links to Web resources on British and Irish Studies, provided by the University of Southern California.
- Irish History Online
- This freely available online database is an authoritative guide (in progress) to what has been written about Irish history from earliest times to the present, covering both articles and books. Because it is not a Queens College database, once you find useful results you will need to check CUNY+ to see if we have them.
- Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive
- A collection of historical repositories including pamphlets, paintings, photographs and documents.
- National Archives of Ireland
- The National Archives of Ireland hold many interesting historical documents. Their databases include the Famine Relief Commission Papers, the Ireland-Australia Transportation Database, and more.
- Sources: A National Library of Ireland Database for Irish Research
- An index of Irish manuscripts and articles in Irish periodicals. Part of the National Library of Ireland
Professional Associations
- American Conference for Irish Studies
- ACIS is a multidisciplinary scholarly organization with approximately 800 members in the United States, Ireland, Canada, and other countries around the world. Every year they hold a national conference and several regional conferences. These meetings include include plenary speakers, academic sessions in all fields of Irish Studies, poetry and fiction readings, films, and performances of Irish music and plays.
- Celtic Studies Association of North American
- The Celtic Studies Association of North America (CSANA) embraces all aspects of Celtic Studies, including the languages, literature, history, folklore, music, art and archaeology of ancient, medieval and modern Celtic cultures. Many members are interested both in Celtic cultures and in their interactions with other peoples and their representation to the rest of the world. CSANA sponsors a yearly conference and an electronic discussion list.
- North American Association for Celtic Language Teachers
- NAACLT is a non-profit professional organization bringing together Celtic language teachers and researchers in Canada and the United States. The association wishes to enable its members to contribute to the greater field of second/foreign language learning through conference participation and publications.
- Irish Studies Web
- Annotated links to online scholarly resources on Irish Studies, from the Western European Studies Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries.
