The Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI) is participating in the Explore Your Archive monthly thematic campaign, which is focusing on ‘Letters’ for the month of February. In this blog, we look at notable letters that can be discovered in the ‘Seán Lester Collection’ deposited on the DRI by Dublin City University (DCU) Library.
Explore Your Archive is an annual campaign run by the Archives and Records Association (ARA) Ireland that showcases the best of archives and archive services in Ireland and the UK through engagement with monthly collection themes across social media platforms. In celebration of the February theme of ‘Letters’, throughout the month the Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI) will be highlighting some of the collections deposited by our members that contain letters of historical, cultural, or literary significance. This blog focuses on notable letters that can be discovered in the ‘Seán Lester Collection’ deposited on the DRI by Dublin City University (DCU) Library.
Image: Explore Your Archive monthly themes
Seán Lester Collection
The Seán Lester Collection contains eleven diaries written by former Irish diplomat Seán Lester from 1935–1942 when he was High Commissioner of the League of Nations in Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland), then Deputy and subsequently General Secretary of the League of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. The numerous letters included in the diaries give an invaluable insight into his work in the League of Nations, the momentous historical events that were taking place during a period of increasing Nazi control, and his personal thoughts and struggles during this period.
Diary 9 August 1940-April 1941 is significant for containing an extensive account of Lester’s meeting with the Irish writer James Joyce and his family in Geneva in 1940. The Joyce family had fled their home in German-occupied France and sought Lester’s help in obtaining a visa for their daughter Lucia who was forced to remain in France after the Nazis refused to issue her with one. A letter from Joyce to Lester prior to this meeting is included in the diaries, as is correspondence between Lester and members of the Joyce family and friends following the death of James Joyce in Zurich less than a month later. One particularly poignant letter stands out written by Lester to Nora Barnacle, Joyce’s wife, lamenting the passing of Joyce and commenting on his literary legacy to the world. Lester remarked: ‘I found him so charming and so unspoiled by his world fame and I was looking with very real pleasure to spending some good evenings with him’.
Image: Copy letter from Seán Lester to Nora Barnacle on the death on James Joyce, 13 January 1941, DCU Special Collections and Archives IE DCUA C1/9/c1_9_0041
Image: Pages from Lester, Seán, 1888-1959. “Diary 9: August 1940 – April 1941.” Digital Repository of Ireland. Dublin City University, November 3, 2021. https://doi.org/10.7486/DRI.pg15r4907
The Seán Lester Collection can be explored on DRI here: https://doi.org/10.7486/DRI.9w03fr23m
Another DCU Library collection of letters will be published on the DRI soon – the Henry Morris Collection which contains correspondence, press-cuttings, autographs, warrants, postcards, invitations, and receipts, collected by the Irish writer and scholar, Henry Morris (1874–1945). Keep an eye on the DRI Twitter account and newsletter for the collection publication announcement! You can also follow DRI on our recently launched Instagram account to discover more great archival collections.
To engage with the Explore Your Archive campaign, look out for the hashtag #ExploreYourArchive across social media platforms!
By DRI Communications and Engagement Coordinator Áine Madden and DCU Digital Humanities Librarian Liam O’Dwyer
