Wanted: One strong, healthy young Man

by Justin Furlong, Newspaper Librarian

The National Library of Ireland has one of the strongest holdings of Irish newspapers in the world. See our Newspaper Database for more details on what we have. However early runs of newspapers (particularly before the introduction of legal deposit in 1927) have occasionally eluded us.

In June 2011, I was contacted by the Tipperary Local Studies Library notifying me of previously unknown issues of the Nenagh News from 1894-1898. These issues were held in the offices of the Nenagh Guardian, still published every week (Nenagh News was incorporated into the Nenagh Guardian in 1926).

Through the co-operation of both the Nenagh Guardian and the Tipperary Local Studies Library, we arranged for the original volumes to be transferred to Dublin for microfilming and ultimately to be digitised.

Advertisements contained in the newspapers look quaint to today’s readers. For example the issue for 21 July 1894 contains an advert for ‘Undertaking (on the newest and most improved method)’ by F.G. Morteshed, 'at moderate terms' of course, while the issue on 7 February 1894 has an ad for the sale of ‘Hornsby Chilled Digging Ploughs’. The paper for 4 July 1896 has a wanted ad for attendants for the Clonmel Lunatic Asylum. The ad states that ‘A preference will probably be given to the man having a knowledge of music’.