A Treasure-House for the Young: Free Public Libraries and the Irish Child

Abstract

The period 1910–1940 was a critical time when free public libraries were developing within the emerging Irish state. The importance of library services for children was acknowledged as a core element of service. The ethos of public libraries was of self-improvement, but in Ireland there was the additional objective of fostering cultural identity. In this chapter Kennedy discusses some of the challenges, conflicts and tensions that emerged within public libraries as they attempted to fire imaginations while also providing ‘wholesome reading’, and create good and moral national citizens: well read, hardworking, sober, moral, politically and socially engaged, with pride in their national culture.