Armagh Robinson Library (formerly Armagh Public Library) is the oldest public Library in Northern Ireland. Founded in 1771 by Richard Robinson, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, the Library will reach its 250th anniversary in 2021. It is governed by an Act of Parliament, enacted in 1773, to establish a ‘Publick Library in the City of Armagh for ever’. An independent research library, today the Library’s mission is, ‘To safeguard and share the treasures of the past for the enjoyment, enrichment and enlightenment of the city [of Armagh] and the world forever’. Along with its second building at No 5 Vicars’ Hill, Armagh, the Library is also an accredited museum whose role is to care for, display and make accessible to the public the collections in its care. In 2019 the Library appeared in ‘The Lonely Planet Guide’s Top 500 Places to Visit in the United Kingdom’, being one of only twenty visitor attractions in Northern Ireland to feature.
Public Lecture on Francis Hutcheson by Ian McBride, Prof Irish History at Oxford University. Photograph by Ian Maginess
Housed in its original purpose-built Georgian Grade A listed building, the Library’s collections consist of printed books and pamphlets, prints and engravings, gems (sulphur impressions), coins, medals, antiquities and fine art. Particularly strong for the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the earliest manuscripts in the Library date from the late twelfth century, while the earliest books date from the 1480s. The book collection includes many first editions and rare publications, including Jonathan Swift’s personal, annotated copy of ‘Gulliver’s Travels’, while the collection of 4,500 prints includes examples of work by the best-known and most significant engravers working from the 15th-18th centuries, including Dürer, Hogarth and Piranesi. The antiquities collection of Archbishop Marcus Gervais Beresford spans a period of several millennia from the Neolithic era to the Middle Ages and includes Neolithic polished stone axe-heads, Bronze Age tools and weapons, eighth-tenth century ringed pins and late medieval ecclesiastical hand-bells.
The Library welcomes a wide range of visitors and users, including scholars and researchers, primary and post-primary schools, specialist interest groups such as literary and historical societies, genealogical societies and community groups, as well as tourists and visitors. Entry to the Library and to No 5 Vicars’ Hill is free, with a charge of £2.50/person per building for guided tours. The tours are designed to suit the ages, backgrounds and interest areas of the participants. The ‘Morning on the Hill’ schools programme, which includes a third visit to the nearby historic St Patrick’s (Church of Ireland) Cathedral, is particularly popular with both local schools and those travelling from further afield. Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) themed education workshops have also been introduced during the last couple of years. These include opportunities to view and handle items from the collection and to study the architecture of the Library building. For younger primary school pupils this is linked to the story of ‘The Three Little Pigs’, while older pupils get to make their own models of the buildings they have visited using K’Nex.
School visit to Armagh Robinson Library. Photograph by Ian Maginess
The Library mounts four temporary exhibitions per year and has an active events programme. Events include lectures and talks, book launches, poetry readings and, for the first time in October 2019, late night yoga. Annually, the Library takes part in Armagh’s St Patrick’s Festival each March, the European Heritage Open Days in September and Armagh’s Georgian Festival at the end of November. The latter includes living history and opportunities to listen Georgian music.
Based within two eighteenth-century buildings, with such rare and significant collections, there might be a perception that the Library is not suitable for the very young but that is not the case. The Library has a Playful Museums programme, which seeks to engage Under 5s and their carers. This has included arts and crafts, and the Library has in recent years hosted reflexology sessions for babies. The Library is also registered as Working to become Dementia-Friendly and has a programme of activities for those living with Dementia and their carers.
The Library has been closed to the public, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, since mid-March 2020. There has been a creative writing engagement activity, co-ordinated by poet Maria McManus, and digital versions of previous temporary exhibitions have been added to the Library’s website (http://armaghrobinsonlibrary.co.uk/wp/collections-2/past-exhibitions-and-displays/). These cover topics as diverse as astronomy, bookplates, botany, children’s rights, mathematics, medicine and theatre. Further online engagement activities are currently being planned for the autumn to engage both current and new audiences. The Library anticipates re-opening to the public, by appointment, from the start of November 2020.
Above the public entrance to the Library there is a Greek inscription which, when translated, reads ‘The Healing Place of the Soul’. The Library certainly endeavours to live up to that by being a welcoming place for all.
Dr Robert Whan
Director
Armagh Robinson Library
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