Archbishop Marsh's Library, Saint Patrick's Close, Dublin

Marsh's Library, built in 1701 by Archbishop Narcissus Marsh is the oldest public library in Ireland.

Marsh drew up An Act for Settling and Preserving a Public Library Forever which after some opposition and several amendments was finally passed in 1707.

The Library was designed by Sir William Robinson who had earlier been the architect for the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham. The books are housed in the upper story.The first gallery is sixty feet long and the second is seventy-six feet long at the end of which are three wired alcoves usually called the cages.

These were intended for the protection of the smaller more valuable books. Several important donations form the basis of the libraries collection. Marsh donated his books and Dr Elias Bouhereau left his collection of books to the library when he was appointed librarian in 1701. In 1705 Marsh purchased the Stillingfleet collection. This, the collection of Bishop Edward Stillingfleet who had been Dean of St Paul's and Bishop of Worcester, was regarded as the best private library in England at the time.

A fourth major collection was bequeathed in 1745 by John Stearne,Bishop of Clogher. More books were added over the years and at present the library houses some 25,000 books including 80 incunabula and 5000 books printed in England before 1700. Marsh's Library is one of the few eighteenth-century buildings in Dublin which is still being used for its original purpose.

The Library contains some 25,000 volumes, chiefly of theology, medicine, ancient history, music, law, travel and classical literature.

The interior of the Library with its beautiful dark oak bookcases each with carved and lettered gables, topped by a mitre, and the three elegant wired alcoves or 'cages' where readers were locked in with rare books, remains unchanged since it was built nearly three hundred years ago.

It is a magnificent example of a seventeenth century scholar's library. Also contained in Marsh's Library is the Delmas Conservation Bindery, which restores and repairs rare books and manuscripts to the highest international standards.

In the 1980s the American Irish Foundation gave a grant for the extensive restoration of Marsh's Library. This included rewiring, painting, decorating, carpeting, the installation of security systems, and the conversion of a derelict area into a fine seminar/reading room. These new facilities were entirely provided by the generosity of the members of the AIF and gave a new lease of life to Marsh's Library. Over the past twenty years the American Irish Foundation (now The Ireland Funds) has continued to support various projects in Marsh's Library.