Libraries Blog

Welcome to our four-week blog series on Virtual Book Clubs for Primary School ages – just in time to help keep your kids engaged and entertained over the summer holidays!

According to local tradition Colmcille is the patron saint of Swords who is said to have created the holy well on Well Road.

Fingal Libraries have more new titles just for you to check out.  What are you waiting for? Grab your Library Card and head over to your nearest Fingal library branch; https://bit.ly/YourLocalFingalLibrary

Check out a variety of new titles now available in Fingal Libraries.  Are you interested in Crime Fiction, General Fiction or Non-Fiction or maybe the latest film on DVD, the choice is endless.

To mark the month of May we are having a seasonal special of Fingal Folktales! May Day or Bealtaine as it is known in Irish was one of the cross-quarter days of the Celtic seasonal cycle. It marks the beginning of the light half of the year and acts as a seasonal counterpoint to Samhain which is the start of the dark half.

Exploring the many possible names for Malahide.

The aim of Kinsella’s translation is to convey the spirit of the older Lebor na hUidre version of the story. While it is not a direct translation, he describes it as ‘a close compromise with one’ (Kinsella 1969: xi). He has also added the remscéala (pre-tales) taken from the Book of Leinsteir version to provide a context for the main events in his translation creating a more cohesive narrative.

For the second instalment of Fingal Folktales, we are exploring a local tale from Lusk about how Cú Chulainn met his wife Emer.

We are kick starting our new blog series ‘Fingal Folktales’ with a St. Patrick’s week special exploring some local stories about the saint. There is a rich vein of folklore connecting St. Patrick to Skerries with the island Inis Patrick being named for him. 

As a 16-year-old student living in Balbriggan, I was surprised to find just how many facilities are available on the Fingal Libraries website online that could be useful for school, mental health, and basic enjoyment. The reason I go to the library most often is for the books, but there is so much more.

I have always loved baking.  It is like magic.  You mix some ingredients together and they combine to become a delicious treat.  I love the creativity of it.  As a child, I would watch my Mam make tarts, scones, and brown bread every Sunday evening.  She would then guess how long they would need to bake for, depending on the temperature of the oven that day! 

Recommended Reads by Fingal Library Staff during the Pandemic Crisis in 2020

These days we are all spending more and more time sitting and looking into screens. It’s how we work and for many of us how we relax. If you’re looking for a way of entertaining yourself while giving your poor eyes a break, then why not try a podcast? They can be listened to while walking, training, cooking, cleaning, eating, taking a bath… The list goes on and the range of topics covered is vast meaning there is something for everyone. The best part is that it’s free!

Despite being a much reprinted and consistently popular book, his novel The Black Arrow: A Tale of the Two Roses occupies an odd place in the canon of Robert Louis Stevenson's works. Its own author was quite dismissive of the book, and it has failed to secure the literary respect accorded to many of Stevenson's more famous works. 

Welcome to Library Ireland Week, a week where we commemorate all that is great about libraries and library staff. Although we like to celebrate libraries all the time, we think this year is especially important.

Christmas is just around the corner and, as any craft lover will know, it’s time to get moving on those festive projects! We’ve had a look through some of the fantastic craft magazines which are available with RB Digital and chose some of our favourite projects to get us in the mood. Read on for our top picks.

Do you know what gollockers are? Perhaps you fancy yourself as a dibby-dab at something? The meanings of these unusual words can be found in a fascinating glossary of North County Dublin terms published by Béaloideas, the journal of the Folklore of Ireland Society, in 1947. Orla from Malahide Library selects a few terms which you may still recognise.

Are you trying to start or build a small business? Do you know who your competitors in the industry are? Maybe you need to do some research on a company for a job interview. If so, you will need business information that is accurate, current and relevant to your needs.  However, this information is often very costly. Orla from Malahide Library gives us a run-down of the benefits of Vision-net – available as part of your library membership.

This year’s Europe Direct Annual Soapbox Competition may look a little different to previous years, but we still have the same fantastic prize of an iPad and the chance to compete in the National Final

Poet Máighréad Medbh from Swords Library offers her response to Sylvia Plath’s poem, The Disquieting Muses, inspired by Giorgio de Chirico’s painting of the same name.

As the autumn leaves fall and the days get shorter, we find ourselves gravitating towards the tea and blankets a little bit earlier in the evenings! What better way to make the most of the changing season than by wrapping up with a nice, atmospheric book? We can’t think of a better way to spend a chilly autumn night.

Soundings from the Shelves was created by our team as a way to present the poetry we have on our shelves, through digital recordings.