Marsh’s mystery down through the pages

 Snuggled behind St Patrick’s cathedral, Marsh’s Library has always attracted a great deal of intrigue

Marsh’s Library, Ireland’s oldest public library, is in the process of restoring a collection of rare Oriental books for an upcoming exhibition. The books, which have been in storage up to now, are due to be renovated for an exhibition this summer.

The library was established by Narcissus Marsh in 1701 and has hardly changed in over three hundred years. Neatly snuggled at the back of St Patrick’s cathedral, it houses a vast collection of books spanning the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

The present librarian, Dr. Muriel McCarthy, is the first female to hold this position, and has been instrumental in making Ireland’s oldest library the first one to go online. She dedicates her life to the library and lives in apartments at the rear of the building.

The library has always been surrounded by a great deal of intrigue. It is regularly visited by groups of school children who enjoy nothing more than hearing the tale of the ghost of Narcissus Marsh who is reputed to roam the library. According to the legend, the ghost spends his nights looking for a letter left by his niece. Fearing that her uncle disapproved of her lover, she eloped with a local clergyman. Before she left however, she apparently wrote a letter expressing her regret and left it in one of the books in the library. It is rumoured that his ghost searches through the books to this day.

There is also a bullet hole in one of the books. It came from a British machine gun in St Patrick’s Park which was firing on the nearby Jacob’s factory (now DIT Aungier St) that was held by the rebels during the 1916 rising.

Ten years ago, an American couple who were visiting Ireland came across the library and were so taken by it that they established a foundation to generate funds for its upkeep. Located at the rear of the library, the Bindery service restores and binds books not only from the library but for other private publishing companies.

Funding has always been a problem according to Dr McCarthy. "The library receives a grant from Dublin Corporation each year but it never enough." A modest fee is charged upon entry, but the library is mainly dependant on fund-raising or donations from patrons.