Guide to the Papers of Oliver MacDonagh, 1958-1993
Collection context
Summary
- Collection number:
- MS 9806
- Creator:
- MacDonagh, Oliver, 1924-2002
- Extent:
- 0.56 metres and (4 boxes)
- Language:
- English
- Preferred citation:
- Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Oliver MacDonagh, National Library of Australia, MS 9806, [box and/or folder number]'.
- Availability:
- Available
- Access conditions:
- Available for reference. Not for loan.
Background
- Content Summary:
- The collection mostly consists of correspondence between MacDonagh and historians in Australia, Britain, Ireland and the United States, written in the period 1973-1993 when he was living in Canberra. The correspondents include Stanley Dennison, Tom Dunne, Edith Mary Johnston, W.J. Lowe, Roy MacLeod, John Molony, John O'Brien and Maurice O'Connell. There are also drafts and notes for lectures and talks, reviews and reprints of some of MacDonagh's articles.
- Biographical Note:
-
Oliver Ormond Gerard MacDonagh was born in Carlow, Ireland, on 23 August 1924. He was educated at the Jesuit College of Clongowes Wood, University College Dublin and Cambridge University. In 1952 he became a Fellow of St Catharine's College, Cambridge. In the same year he married Carmel Hamilton. They had seven children.
In 1964 MacDonagh came to Australia to take up the Foundation Chair of History at Flinders University of South Australia. He was also Chair of the School of Social Sciences. In 1968 he returned to Ireland as Professor of Modern History at University College Cork, a position he held for five years. He was a Visiting Professor at Yale University in 1970 and in 1973 he came back to Australia as Professor of History in the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University. Following his retirement in 1990, he was Executive Director of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia for a two year term. He was also a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, the British Academy and the Royal Irish Academy.
MacDonagh wrote thirteen books and over a hundred articles and essays, mostly in the fields of Irish and British history and also English literature. They include A pattern of government growth 1800-1860 (1961), Early Victorian government 1830-1870 (1977), The Inspector General: Sir Jeremiah Fitzpatrick and social reform 1783-1802 (1981), States of mind; a study of Anglo-Irish conflict 1780-1980 (1985), a two volume biography of Daniel O'Connell, The hereditary bondsman (1987) and The Emancipist (1989), and Jane Austen: real and imagined worlds (1991). He had a strong interest in Irish-Australian immigration history and with Ken Inglis conceived the multi-volume Bicentenary publication The Australians.
Oliver MacDonagh died in Sydney on 22 May 2002.
Bibliographic Reference(s)
- Pat Jalland. 'Oliver Ormond Gerard MacDonagh', Australian Historical Studies, no. 121, April 2003, pp. 175-77.
- Provenance:
-
The collection was donated to the Library by Mrs Carmel MacDonagh in 2004.
- Arrangement:
-
Apart from the reprints, the papers were filed by MacDonagh and this arrangement has been retained.
Indexed terms
- Names:
- MacDonagh, Oliver, 1924-2002
Access and use
- Conditions Governing Access:
- The collection is available for reference.
- Conditions Governing Use:
- Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions. For such material, written permission to publish must be obtained from the copyright holder(s). Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.
- Preferred citation:
- Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Oliver MacDonagh, National Library of Australia, MS 9806, [box and/or folder number]'.
- Location of this collection:
-
Parkes PlaceCanberra ACT 2600, Australia
- Contact: