Irish Government announces €200,000 in funding towards the conservation of the Robert and Nelofer Pazira-Fisk Archive & Library
Trinity College Dublin has received €200,000 in funding from the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (DFHERIS) to support the conservation of the personal archive of the renowned late journalist and Trinity graduate Robert Fisk and his wife, Nelofer Pazira-Fisk. The Archive, spanning Robert Fisk’s 50-year journalistic career, was donated to the Library of Trinity College Dublin by Nelofer Pazira-Fisk.
The Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Patrick O’Donovan T.D. announced the funding at Trinity’s Eavan Boland Library this week, with Nelofer Pazira-Fisk, Trinity Provost Dr Linda Doyle, and Librarian and College Archivist Helen Shenton in attendance.
Robert Fisk received a PhD in political science from Trinity College Dublin in 1985 and maintained a life-long connection with the University. He was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2008.
The Robert and Nelofer Pazira-Fisk Archive & Library encompasses material from Robert Fisk’s first posting in Belfast in 1972 for the London Times up until the posthumous publication of his final book, The Night of Power: Betrayal of the Middle East (2024). Notes from his interviews with Osama Bin Laden in the caves of Afghanistan are among the extensive range of notebooks, research notes, photographs, audio files of interviews, drafts for published works, and correspondence of letters and emails. The collection also includes artefacts such as explosives shells and salvaged items such as the strip of an oil painting taken from a church by Islamic State.
The Library of Trinity College Dublin will make this Archive fully accessible as soon as possible for readers and researchers in-person and online. There is extensive work involved in cataloguing, conserving and preserving, and digitising an archive of such significance.
In supporting these life-cycle costs, Government funding will now help to make this possible and has enabled this generous donation by Nelofer Pazira-Fisk to proceed.
Nelofer Pazira-Fisk said:
“I am grateful to people in Ireland for their moral stand against oppression and injustices – and to the Irish government for this kind financial support. Robert said we must bear witness and record what we see, so no one can say that they did not know. At a time when a dark curtain of censorship is extending across the Western democracies, when journalism is under attack, reporters face death and targeted assault, false labels and accusations undermine the work of anyone who dares speak out. The preservation and dissemination of information has become more pressing.
“Robert and I often discussed our wish to pass on our archive so the future generations could make use of it with the hope that it will foster questioning and debate. And that knowledge of history enables humanity to say no to violence of all kinds. Robert had an affinity with Ireland and a great admiration for Trinity College as a place of knowledge. I am pleased that TCD has agreed to be the custodian of this collection.”
Minister Patrick O’Donovan (pictured above on left with Nelofer, Librarian Helen Shenton and Provost Dr Linda Doyle) said:
“This is an exciting day for Trinity, and I am thrilled to announce this funding which will enable the donation of this historic archive to proceed.
“Robert Fisk was a celebrated journalist who spent over 45 years as a leading foreign correspondent for UK and Irish media, notably covering the Middle East from his base in Beirut.
“His incredible career spanned numerous significant events, including conflicts in Iran, the Gulf, Lebanon, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Gaza, as well as the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the Arab Spring in 2011. Fisk also received numerous accolades for his work, including the British Press Awards’ International Journalist of the Year seven times and the ‘Reporter of the Year’ award twice.
“The funding announced today will provide Trinity with the necessary resources to undertake an essential two-year conservation project. The availability of these materials will undoubtedly enrich the academic experiences of students and researchers alike.”
Provost Dr Linda Doyle said: “We are honoured that Nelofer Pazira-Fisk has donated this Archive to Trinity. It will advance teaching and research into the conflicts covered by Robert Fisk over so many years and will act as a vital resource for researchers, policy makers and the public. Today’s announcement will contribute to the Archive’s conservation and accessibility for the future.”
Librarian and College archivist, Helen Shenton said: “Robert Fisk was unfaltering in his commitment to frontline journalism and being a witness to history, with one-on-one access to sources – many of whom are no longer alive today. The exceptional Archive includes ‘born digital’ content, containing email correspondence, representing a new archival area of the 21st century. The Library of Trinity College will ensure the physical and digital preservation of this Archive and make it accessible in the near future and for posterity. It will be available through our Research Collections Study Centre and online through our Virtual Trinity Library programme.”
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Two sketchbooks belonging to the composer Ina Boyle (1889-1967) have been donated by Mary Kelly to the Library of Trinity College Dublin, where they will join the rest of the Ina Boyle manuscript collection as TCD MSS 11735/1-2.
On the occasion of the donation, Roy Stanley, Music Librarian at the Library of Trinity College said: “Ina Boyle composed a number of stage works, and some of the manuscripts include her drawings of costumes and stage designs. It is therefore very exciting that we are now able to add these sketchbooks to the collection, containing Boyle’s drawings of her surroundings at Bushey Park and portraits of musicians in her circle (including her teacher and mentor Ralph Vaughan Williams). Thanks to this generous donation by Mary Kelly, future scholars will now have a more complete picture of the range of Ina Boyle’s talents.”
Sometimes the survival of an archival treasure depends on pure happenstance. Over fifty years ago a young girl, Mary Kelly, accompanied her father to an auction at Bushey Park, Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow, where the owner, Ina Boyle, had recently died. “Miss Boyle” had been a familiar figure in the locality, driving to and from the village in her bottle green Morris Minor. Members of Mary Kelly’s family spoke of her as a talented composer who was frequently performed by the BBC but was not appreciated in her own country.
In the house, Mary’s father noticed a heap of rubbish in a corner which was clearly on its way to the dump. He spotted drawing books in the pile and asked Mary to pick them up as they might contain some blank pages she could use for drawing. When they got home they discovered that the sketchbooks contained some of Miss Boyle’s drawings, so Mary refrained from using them and instead kept them safely as mementos.
At around the same time Ina Boyle’s friend and fellow composer, Elizabeth Maconchy, was arranging for the donation of Ina’s music manuscripts to the Library of Trinity College Dublin, where they were soon organised and catalogued. The collection is substantial, containing a total of 140 works, including 66 songs, 37 choral pieces, an opera, 12 pieces for chamber ensemble, and 24 orchestral pieces (including three symphonies, three ballet scores, a violin concerto, and several pieces for cello and orchestra).
Despite Boyle’s constant efforts to promote her music, few of these works had been published or performed in the composer’s lifetime. In an effort to remedy this, in 1974 the Library published Ina Boyle: an appreciation with a select list of her music by Elizabeth Maconchy. However, for several decades the collection remained little noticed. This has changed in the last fifteen years or so, largely due to the efforts of Boyle’s biographer Ita Beausang and the work of the Ina Boyle Society Limited (IBSL), spearheaded by its indefatigable founder Katie Rowan.
This renewed interest has prompted the Library to digitise many of the manuscripts and make them available on its Digital Collections platform This gives musicologists and performers easy access to the manuscripts, allowing them to produce scholarly and practical performing editions. As a result there have been numerous public performances and recordings in recent years, as noted on the IBSL website www.inaboyle.org.
All of this activity has been a source of great pleasure to Mary Kelly who, in the years since her rescue of Ina Boyle’s sketchbooks, has herself become a noted composer. She decided that the time had come to give the sketchbooks a permanent home and, in consultation with the Ina Boyle Society, offered to donate them to the Library, where they will join the rest of the Ina Boyle manuscript collection.
On Tuesday, 5th November last, Mary Kelly was joined by a group representing the Ina Boyle Society to make the formal presentation.
On the occasion of the donation, Mary Kelly said:
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Pictured in the image above are Jane Maxwell, Mary Kelly (donor), Ita Beausang (Ina Boyle biographer), Roy Stanley.