Children's and Young Adult Literature at DCU School of English

The School of English plays a significant role in the promotion of children’s and young adult literature in Ireland. We welcome collaboration with national and international academics, educationalists, writers, illustrators, publishers, in fact anyone, with an interest in children’s and young adult literature.

In the past, we have attracted international scholars, such as Prof Raffaella Baccolini, Dr Roberta Penerzoli, Prof Kenneth Kidd, Prof Karen Coats, Prof Jerry Griswold, Dr Marah Gubar, Prof Peter Hunt, Dr Lucy Pearson, Prof Maria Tatar, and Prof Jack Zipes, as well as leading writers for children and young adults, such as Ireland’s first Laureate na nÓg, Siobhán Parkinson, Dave Rudden, Cliodha O'Sullivan, Deirdre Sullivan, Sarah Maria Griffin, and English writer Melvin Burgess.

Why collaborate with us?

Children’s and Young Adult Literature at DCU School of English

• supports Ireland’s first master’s programme in children’s and young adult literature
• engages in the publication of seminal works of literary criticism in the discipline
• participates in, and leads, major nationally and internationally funded research projects
• collaborates with national organisations (such as Children’s Books Ireland) and international centres for research (such as the Children’s Literature Unit, Newcastle University and the Cotsen Children’s Library, Princeton University)
• hosts DCU’s multi-disciplinary Network for Children’s and Young Adult Literature and Culture (which links members of staff across the university’s faculties engaged with children’s and young adult literature in their work)
• encourages public debate about children’s and young adult literature

 For further information on Children’s and Young Adult Literature at DCU School of English, please contact Dr Jennifer Mooney by e-mail,  at jennifer.mooney@dcu.ie, or Dr Keith O’Sullivan, at keith.osullivan@dcu.ie.

The School of English supports the school’s master’s degree in children’s and young adult literature programme.

The study of children’s literature at the School of English has its origins in a long tradition of scholarship in the discipline associated with two of the university’s incorporating colleges: the former Church of Ireland College of Education offered the first postgraduate qualification (a diploma) in children’s literature, in Ireland, in 1992; the former Department of English, at St. Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, offered the first taught master’s programme in the discipline, in Ireland, in 1997.

Since September 2017, students at the new DCU School of English have been able to study for a master’s degree or graduate diploma in children’s and young adult literature programmes, which marks an exciting departure for both the discipline and the new school.

For further information on the school’s master’s degree or graduate diploma, please contact the chair of the MA programme, Dr Jennifer Mooney by e-mail, at Jennifer.Mooney@dcu.ie, or the deputy chair, Dr Keith O'Sullivan by e-mail, at Keith.OSullivan@dcu.ie.

MA/GradDip Teaching Staff 2025-2026

School of English

Dr Kit Fryatt, Dr Michael Hinds, Dr Jennifer Mooney, Dr Paula Murphy, Dr Sharon Murphy, Dr Keith O’Sullivan, Dr Jim Shanahan, Dr Ellen Howley and Dr Lucy Stone

School of Applied Languages and Linguistics

Dr Áine Mcguillicuddy and Dr Ryoko Sasamoto

Independent and Adjunct Scholars

Dr Valerie Coghlan and Prof Peter Hunt

Current

Barrett, Maxwell: Landscape and Beauty in the Works of Padraic Colum. (Supervisor: Dr Keith O’Sullivan)

Jordan, Mairéad (Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Climate and Society Doctoral Scholar): ‘A glitch in geological time’ – an examination of the nature-culture dichotomy in the fusion texts of Shaun Tan, Dave McKean and Oliver Jeffers. (Supervisors: Dr Keith O’Sullivan and Dr Áine Mcgillicuddy, SALIS)

Hudson, Allison (School of English Doctoral Scholar): Beautiful Things: Material Culture and Chidlren's Literature. (Supervisors: Dr Áine Mcgillicuddy and Dr Sharon Murphy)

Isac, Ashly (School of English Doctoral Scholar): Gender and Diaspora in Contemporary South Asian Young Adult Literature . (Supervisor: Dr Jennifer Mooney)

Past

Bhattacharya, Anindita (2023) “Bid him bring the knife of the magic blade | At whose lightning flash the charm will fade”: Re-interpreting the Supernatural in Irish and Bengali Children's Literature. (Supervisor: Dr Keith O’Sullivan)

Mooney, Jennifer  (2021) Feminism and Power in the works of Louise 'Neill. PhD thesis, Dublin City University. (Supervisors: Dr Keith O'Sullivan)

Baker, Audrey (2015) The Portrayal of Disability in Young Adult Fiction: A Critical Examination. PhD thesis, Dublin City University. (Supervisors: Dr Derek Hand, Dr Noreen Doody and Celia Keenan)

Herron, Anne Marie (2011) The Tyranny of the Past? Revolution, Retrospection and Remembrance in the work of Irish writer, Eilis Dillon, Volumes I & II. PhD thesis, Dublin City University. (Supervisors: Dr Mary Shine Thompson, Celia Keenan and Dr Julie Anne Stevens)

Keyes, Marian Thérèse (2010) “Taken from the Life” Mimetic Truth and Ekphrastic Eloquence in the Writings of Anna Maria Fielding Hall (1800-1881). PhD thesis, Dublin City University. (Supervisors: Dr Mary Shine Thompson and Celia Keenan)

O’Sullivan, Keith (2010) In a Tradition of Republican Revolution: Romanticism and Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials. PhD thesis, Dublin City University. (Supervisors: Dr Derek Hand, Dr Mary Shine Thompson and Celia Keenan)

2024 ongoing: G-BOOK 3 – Gender Positive Books for Teens

DCU PI: Dr Áine McGillicuddy, SALIS

DCU Team Members: Dr Keith O’Sullivan and Dr Jennifer Mooney, School of English, and Dr Olga Springer, SALIS

2024 ongoing: G-BOOK 3 – Gender Positive Books for Teens is a project co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union. Building on the successful outcomes of its predecessors, G-BOOK and G-BOOK 2, this initiative addresses the critical need for positive gender representation in literature targeted at the 15–18 age group, a segment previously unexplored within the project framework.

G-BOOK 3 aims to:

● Foster the transnational circulation of gender-positive literature for teenagers across Europe.

● Raise awareness and engage the target group (15–18-year-olds) on gender-related topics through literature while nurturing their social, emotional, and creative skills, leveraging digital technologies and social media.

2020-2022: European Teens as Readers and Creators of Gender-Positive Narratives

• DCU PI: Dr Keith O’Sullivan, School of English
• DCU Project Assistant: Sue Miller, Education Librarian, Cregan Library
• DCU Team Members: Dr Áine Mcgillicuddy, SALIS

The School of English, DCU, is delighted that the European Commission has decided to fund 'G-Book 2: European teens as readers and creators of gender-positive narratives', which builds upon the work of the original G-Book project and the creation of the first gender-positive online bibliography for children.

Dublin City University is proud to work again with the University of Bologna — and project partners University of Vigo, University of Paris 13, Regional Library of Veliko Tarnovo (Bulgaria) and City Library of Sarajevo — on this €200,000 project, which is co-funded by a European Union grant.

G-BOOK 2 adopts a similar methodology to the original project and aims to expand the original online bibliography to include literature read by children aged 11 to 14 (see www.g-book.eu).

DCU also looks forward to working with new an old colleagues in DCU, libraries, schools and other organisations, such as Children’s Books Ireland, over the course of the project.

For further details see https://www.creativeeuropeireland.eu/culture/news/seven-irish-organisat…

2017-2019: Gender Identity: Child Readers and Library Collections

• DCU PI: Dr Keith O’Sullivan, School of English
• DCU Project Assistant: Sue Miller, Education Librarian, Cregan Library

The School of English partnered University of Bologna — and project partners University of Vigo, University of Paris 13, Regional Library of Veliko Tarnovo (Bulgaria) and City Library of Sarajevo — on the Creative Europe project ‘Gender Identity: Child Readers and Library Collections’.

Th €310,000 project, which was co-funded with a European Union grant, brought together specialists working in children's literature, gender studies, translation studies, library science and education, with the aim of discovering, exploring and promoting literature that enables young readers (from the age of 3 to 10) to reflect on their identities and, in their own time, question stereotypes, bias and perceived norms around gender. 

The project partners created a select, multilingual bibliography of children’s books concerned with gender identity that is accessible through a purpose-built website. For further information, please go to http://www.g-book.eu.

To supplement the online bibliography, project partners also created dedicated sections in a number of libraries throughout Europe to promote books in the bibliography. Running alongside the creation of the bibliography and dedicated library sections were a range of educational activities to support the aim of the project, including lectures; public readings; workshops for children, parents and educators; and, events in collaboration with national organisations, such as Children's Books Ireland.

Talks 

2025 

‘A Mini Conference on the Carnegie Medal’ Dr Lucy Pearson’ (Newcastle University) and with  Professor Peter Hunt (DCU Adjunct Professor and Professor Emeritus in Children’s Literature Cardiff University, UK) This talk was presented as part of the MA in Children’s and Young Adult Literature degree programme, School of English

First awarded in 1936, the Carnegie Medal is the 'UK's oldest and most prestigious children's book award' for the 'outstanding' children's book of each year. Not surprisingly, 'the decision of the selection committee is seldom universally approved': this mini conference discusses the prize-giving culture, and its value in the children's book system.

Dr Lucy Pearson will talk on how the Carnegie Medal constructed its reputation as 'canon maker', looking at the early years of the Medal and its relationship to the emerging profession of children's librarianship. (Professor Peter Hunt will talk about Arthur Ransome's Pigeon Post - the first winner. What made it - and makes it - outstanding?

2024

‘LOVELY RICE PUDDING AND THE INNER ORGANS OF BEASTS AND FOWLS: Children’s Literature and its Gastronomic Contexts’, Professor Peter Hunt, Adjunct Professor, DCU and Professor Emeritus in English and Children’s Literature, Cardiff University, UK. This talk is presented as part of the MA in Children's and Young Adult degree programme, School of English

Often what is lacking in children’s books’ histories is a sense of context – what is going on in the literary and cultural and social worlds surrounding them. Obviously that is too big a topic for anybody, but by concentrating on how food is portrayed in children’s and adult texts, we can get an idea of how children’s books reflect, contradict, or even lead cultural developments through, in this case, the twentieth century. (The two quotations hidden in the title, for example, are almost contemporaneous.)

2023

SENSITIVITY READERS: Moral panic or doing it right?

A panel discussion featuring authors Patricia Forde, Sophie White and Shane Hegarty, and Professor Peter Hunt - Adjunct Professor, DCU and Professor Emeritus in English and Children’s Literature, Cardiff University, UK. This talk is presented as part of the MA in Children's and Young Adult degree programme, School of English

The role of ‘sensitivity readers’ in contemporary publishing is polarising - particularly in the context of writing for young readers. For some, the idea of authors entering into the practice of hiring someone to read a manuscript before its publication to point out what might potentially offend readers is symptomatic of ‘moral panic’ and counter to the freedoms and risk-taking they see as inherent to the role of the author. For others, sensitivity readers are essential for writers to handle characters or cultures they may not be familiar with ethically and respectfully. Our panel of speakers will consider the role of the ‘sensitivity reader’ in Irish and international writing for both children and adults. They will consider whether the sensitivity reader is symptomatic of our ‘sensitive’ times and if it might impinge on an author’s freedoms and inhibit their creativity. They will discuss whether sensitivity readers are increasingly necessary as authors navigate the complexities of contemporary Ireland in terms of its greater multiculturalism and aim to create more inclusive stories. 

‘Living Toys in Children’s Literature: Ontology, Narratology, and Downright Theft’, Professor Peter Hunt, Adjunct Professor, DCU and Professor Emeritus in English and Children’s Literature, Cardiff University, UK. This talk is presented as part of the MA in Children's and Young Adult degree programme, School of English

Why should a group of intelligent adults spend an hour talking about fictional animated toys? Simple: texts for children are vitally important to world culture, and this highly influential genre (who has not had favourite book of this sort?) pivots on the very centre of the power imbalance that lies at the heart of all children’s literature. A child’s private relationship with a favourite toy (and who has not had one?) is both universal and intimate, and writers over the centuries have appropriated this relationship, adulterated it, and sold it back to children. The complexity of this process is reflected in the technical complexity of the narrative strategies that writers and illustrators have had to use, and raises some basic questions about authenticity in writing for children. 

2022

‘Children’s literature from a gender perspective: literary, gender and translational issues’, Professor Raffaella Baccolini and Associate Professor Roberta Pederzoli (Department of Interpreting and Translation, University of Bologna). This talk is presented as part of the MA in Children's and Young Adult degree programme, School of English

This talk proposes a critical-theoretical reflection on literature for children and young adults from a gender perspective and on its translation. In particular, the following themes were explored, both as regards literature and its translation: gender representations and stereotypes; families; male and female figures; LGBTQ+ issues. The talk also included some case studies of illustrated books in English and French with LGBTQ+ themes translated into Italian. Profs Baccolini and Pederzoli analyzed both paratext and text, showing how in the transfer from one language culture to another there are some shifts and changes, not necessarily questionable, which nonetheless present the source text in a new light and produce a different effect on the target reader.

‘Alt Kid Lit: Notes on an Edited Volume in Progress’, Professor Kenneth Kidd
(Department of English, the University of Florida). This talk is presented as part of the MA in Children's and Young Adult Literature degree programme, School of English

This talk offered a progress report on both the substance and the assembly of a coedited volume Prof Kidd is coediting with Dr. Derritt Mason called Alt Kid Lit: What Children’s Literature Has Been, Never Was, and Might Yet Be. The idea here wasn't to wrangle over definitions of children’s and young adult literature but rather to track possibilities, to think about “alt” conceptions of material, methodology, audience, and circulation, with an eye toward both expanding our field and understanding the cultural politics of disciplinarity.

Authors Dave Rudden and Cliodhna O'Sullivan in conversation with Jennifer Mooney. This talk is presented as part of the MA in Children's and Young Adult Literature degree programme, School of English

Dave Rudden is Writer in Residence at DCU for 2022. He is the author of The Knights of the Borrowed Dark Series, published by Puffin. His short stories have been short-listed for the Hennessy New Writing Award and the Bath Short Story Prize.

Cliodhna O’Sullivan is the author of The Stone Keep – her first YA novel. Heroic Books published The Stone Keep in November 2021 under Cliodhna’s nom de plume Stella K Marley.

Authors Deirdre Sullivan and Sarah Maria Griffin in conversation with Jennifer Mooney. This talk is presented as part of the MA in Children's and Young Adult Literature degree programme, School of English

Deirdre Sullivan is a writer and teacher from Galway. Her work has previously been shortlisted for the EU prize for literature, and has been awarded two White Ravens, as well as the Irish Book Award for best short story in 2021. Her eighth book for young adults, Precious Catastrope, was published in September 2021. Her first play, Wake, was produced by No Ropes theatre company in February 2019. Her debut collection of short fIction, I Want To Know That I Will Be Okay, was published by Banshee Press in 2021.

Sarah Maria Griffin is a writer, poet, and zinester living in Dublin. She holds a degree in English, Media and Cultural Studies from Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology and a master's degree in creative writing from NUI Galway. She was the recipient of the 2017 European Science Fiction Awards Chrysalis Award and was a writer-in-residence at Maynooth University for the 2018 to 2019 academic year. Her 2019 young adult novel, Other Words for Smoke, was included on the 2020 American Library Association Rainbow List.

"Full of Frolics and Fiddle-De-Dees”: Songs as children’s books and vice versa’, Dr
Catherine Ann Cullen (Poet in Residence at Poetry Ireland 2019-2021). This talk is presented as part of the MA in Children's and Young Adult Literature degree programme, School of English

This talk takes its title from Julia Donaldson's first children's book, A Squash and a Squeeze, which started life as a song. Cullen's fourth children's book, due in autumn 2022 from Veritas, is based on one of her contributions to the nationwide Traditional Songs for Our Children project. In this talk, Cullen will look at songs that have become picture books, songs that have influenced picture books, and a few books that have become songs. She will interrogate why they work and what they can teach children, through features that render
the texts memorable such as compact storytelling, incremental repetition, rhyming, choruses and alliteration. She will draw on her experience of writing for and reading to children for over twenty years.

2021

'Girls on a Mission', Professor Emerita Maria Tatar (John L. Loeb Professor of Germanic Languages and Literature, Harvard University). This talk is presented as part of the MA in Children's and Young Adult Literature degree programme and Research Seminar Series, School of English

All the desires, passions, and appetites that turn grown women into monsters are less threatening when channeled through the younger crowd. The protective cloak of childhood innocence enabled grown women to self-actualize by writing about girls and also to express—through their characters—a form of curiosity, care, and concern that became part of a broader social mission. From Jo March and Anne of Green Gables to Harriet the Spy and Starr Carter, girls learn how to use their voices. This talk will explore how these girls become the heroines with a 1001 faces, using words to change the world rather than the weapons wielded by Joseph Campbell’s heroes with a thousand faces.

'Making Room for Child Writers in Children's Literature Studies', Dr Marah Gubar (Associate Professor of Literature, MIT). This talk is presented as part of the MA in Children's and Young Adult Literature degree programme and Research Seminar Series, School of English

When we define children’s literature as texts composed by adults for children, youth-oriented texts written by young people get occluded from view. In this talk, Dr Gubar will recuperate one such story—twelve-year-old Alexandra Sheedy’s deliciously witty novella She Was Nice to Mice (1975)—which she read and loved as a child and which she uses now to illustrate the theoretical, pedagogical, and ethical benefits of making such stories a more integral part of children’s literature studies.

2020

'Bedding the Ear and Training the Eye: Multimodal Metaphors in Children's Texts', Professor Karen Coats (Director of the Centre for Research in Children's Literature, University of Cambridge,UK). This talk is presented as part of the MA in Children's and Young Adult Literature degree programme and Research Seminar Series, School of English

Metaphor theory has long been limited to linguistic metaphors. Since the publication of Lakoff and Johnson's Metaphors We Live By and the New London Group's call for 'a pedagogy of multiliteracies', however, a more expansive line of thinking has emerged. As children's literature critics, we should own this area; the texts we study apprentice children in their apprehension of the metaphors their cultures live by, connecting sensory modalities to abstract concepts in ways that complement or even bypass linguistic understanding altogether. This talk will draw attention to what we know about children's metaphoric understanding from a developmental perspective as we explore some exemplary visual and synesthetic metaphors found in children's poetry, picturebooks, and graphic narratives.

'Louder than words', The iBbY Ireland Annual Lecture and Symposium. This talk was co-sponsored by the Centre for Research in Children's and Young Adult Literature, School of English

David Wiesner is an American illustrator and writer of children’s books, known best for his 'silent books’. As an illustrator, he was awarded three Caldecott medals, which recognise a year's ‘most distinguished American picture book for children’. He was one of five finalists in 2008 for the biennial, international Hans Christian Anderson Award, the highest recognition available for creators of children’s books. In, this is his first speaking engagement in Ireland, David explored the art of wordless picturebooks. 

"'Another Fine Mess You’ve Got us into, Gandalf.’ The Private Faces of Children’s Literature Studies", Professor Peter Hunt (Professor Emeritus in English and Children's Literature Cardiff University, UK). This talk was presented as part of the MA in Childen's and Young Adult degree programme, School of English

Forty years ago there were a handful of books about children’s literature. Now there are thousands. How do (especially, young) scholars cope? What strategies have been used to deal with this amazing and amorphous subject, as cultures have changed, childhoods have changed, and media have changed – and perhaps the texts themselves. Children’s Literature as a discipline has (broadly speaking) bounced from being a tool of conservative education, to high theory, to academic conventionality, and now to being a tool of cultural intervention - but what has been, and is, constant? Struggles with gender, status, non-peer interpretation and cognition, the idea of the child, and, most of all, power imbalance and are part of the essential nature and challenge of the discipline. In this talk, Prof Hunt, with many wonderful and weird examples, showed how generations of ingenious scholars have cut their ways through this deeply tangled literary and cultural forest, while asking more questions about how such cutting might be done in the future.

"‘'What Shall We Tell the Grown Ups?’ The Public Face of Children’s Literature Studies", Professor Peter Hunt (Professor Emeritus in English and Children's Literature Cardiff University, UK). This talk was presented as part of the School of English Research Seminar Series

Children’s Literature is one of the most exciting of subjects, but – especially in a world when the Humanities is under siege – its virtues (indeed, its purpose) may not always be obvious to the outside world. This talk looked at popular misconceptions about children’s literature (such as what it’s like, and what it can or should do) and what academics can or should do to deal with them. Examing new books about the making of Carroll’s ‘Alice’ books, and The Wind in the Willows, Prof Hunt explored whether we can bridge the gap between what specialist scholars know and what the reading public knows – or wants to know.

2017

‘Reweaving Middle Earth: Diana Wynne Jones, the archive, and the shadow of Tolkien’, Dr Lucy Pearson (Newcastle University, UK)

Dr Lucy Pearson, head of the Children’s Literature Unit at Newcastle University, presented a wonderful talk on what the archive can tell us about the development of women’s literary voices. Dr Pearson argued that, writing in a genre which sprang largely from the work of her former teacher Tolkien, Diana Wynne Jones produced some of the most distinctive works of modern children’s fantasy. Reading The Spellcoats from the perspective of the archive – both literal and literary – Dr Pearson illustrated how Jones negotiated questions of influence and gender.

2015

‘Conversations in the Classroom’

Under the direction of Dr Julie Anne Stevens, the centre created a public forum for debate about children’s literature and culture by initiating a series of provocative talks about books and other resources in the classroom. Drawn from both the humanities and education, these informal conversations were presented by both national and international and national speakers to raise awareness about developments across the disciplines.

Bailiúchán Uí Dhochartaigh Collection

The Library of St. Patrick's College, Drumcondra acquired this collection of teenage fiction as Gaeilge in 2012. It includes some 53 titles by Cathal Ó Sándair, and 32 by other authors including Eoghan Ó Grádaigh and P. D. Linn. Cathal Ó Sándair was born in 1922 in Weston-Super-Mare and he became a prolific writer of fiction in the Irish language. Central to his four main series works are characters: detective Réics Carlo, cowboy Réamonn Óg, seafarer Captaen Toirneach, and astronaut Captaen Spéirling. Ó Sándair's books were hugely popular and he died in 1966.

Bartlett Puffin Collection

Jan Bartlett collected some 778 titles in Penguin's Puffin series and the Church of Ireland College of Education continued this work with the result that the library now holds an almost complete run from PS1 to PS1199 (NCCB, 2015). For an overview of this collection, see the National Collection of Children’s Books (NCCB) project at https://nccb.tcd.ie/libraries-collections.

Articles

• ‘The development of Puffin Books’ (login req.) by Kate Wright. In Bookbird (2009), 47(1).
• ‘The Puffin Story Book Phenomenon: Popularization, Canonization and Fantasy, 1941–1979’ by Keith O’Sullivan. In Children’s Literature Collections: Approaches to Research (2017).
• ‘Puffin power: the Jan Bartlett Collection of Puffin Books’ by Valerie Coghlan. In Inis (2003), no. 6, autumn.

Children's Books Ireland Collection 

The Children's Books Ireland (CBI) collection is an extensive collection of children's books by Irish authors and illustrators – and those who have made their home on this island. It is a significant collection in terms of the cultural life of the nation and comprises thousands of titles of work in both the English and Irish languages. 

The collection is rich with work spanning fiction and non-fiction, illustrated titles and novels of all kinds. It holds huge potential but is currently not broadly accessed by scholars or indeed catalogued with any degree of professionalism. The collection is currently recorded in excel spreadsheets. 

The collection comprises titles submitted for the Children’s Books Ireland Book of the Year Awards – the leading annual children’s book awards in Ireland. The Children’s Books Ireland Book of the Year Awards identify, honour and promote excellence in books for young people by Irish authors and illustrators. The awards are the most prestigious in Ireland and offer one of the few opportunities for national and international recognition of Irish authors and illustrators. Excellence in children’s books is the over-arching criterion. 

Culture Legacy Library Collection

A focus on children’s and young adult literature was established by the former Department of English, St. Patrick's College, Drumcondra, in 2006, to support its master’s degree in children’s literature, first offered in 1997. Drawing upon the department’s expertise and that of the wider college community (as well as external experts) the department advanced the study of children’s literature in a multi-disciplinary context. In June 2016 (in light of the incorporation of the college into DCU), Dr. Julie Anne Stevens placed the department’s library into the care of DCU Library. A snapshot of the collection can be found at https://dcu.libguides.com/CCL.

Junior Special Collection

The Junior Special Collection favours books of Irish interest, rare items, items of value, and items at risk. It provides an important insight into children's literature in twentieth-century Ireland. The oldest book in the collection is Maria Edgeworth's The parent's assistant or Stories for children (in three volumes), published in Dublin by John Cumming in 1829. More generally the collection includes works by Eilís Dillon; Meta Mayne Reid; Eileen O'Faoláin; Sinéad De Valera; Madeleine Pollard; Walter Macken; Charles Kingsley, as well as a fine copy of An tÁilleán, the first children's picture book published in Irish, dated 1902. For an overview of this collection, see the National Collection of Children’s Books (NCCB) project at https://nccb.tcd.ie/libraries-collections. 

Kildare Place Society Collection

In 1969 the training college of the Kildare Place Society moved to Rathmines and became the Church of Ireland Training College, and later again the Church of Ireland College of Education. This collection contains some 185 records and publications of the Kildare Place Society. For an overview of this collection, see the National Collection of Children’s Books (NCCB) project at https://nccb.tcd.ie/libraries-collections.

Book Chapter

‘The Kildare Place Society: an influential force in 19th-century Irish education’ by Valerie Coghlan and Geraldine O’Connor. In Acts of reading: teachers, text and childhood (2009).

Padraic Colum Collection

Poet, playwright, writer, folklorist, and children's author Padraic Colum was born in a workhouse in Longford in 1881. He emigrated with his wife to the USA in 1914 and began writing a series of stories for children for the New York Sunday Tribune. His works for children include versions of epic tales and well-known stories. The Library holds a number of books by and about Padraic Colum. For an overview of this collection, see the National Collection of Children’s Books (NCCB) project at https://nccb.tcd.ie/libraries-collections.

Book

The Writings of Padraic Colum: ‘That Queer Thing, Genius’. New York and London: Routledge. Edited by Pádraic Whyte and Keith O'Sullivan (2024).http://www.routledge.com/9781032393223
 

Book Chapters

‘Framing the Poetic Landscape of Padraic Colum’s The Golden Fleece’ by Max Barrett and Keith O'Sullivan in The Writings of Padraic Colum: ‘That Queer Thing, Genius’ (2024).
 

''As a Saga and not as Separate Pieces’:Simultaneity and Padraic Colum’s Poetry' by Jennifer Mooney in The Writings of Padraic Colum: ‘That Queer Thing, Genius’ (2024).

Resources

2022. ‘Padraic Colum, 1881-1972: 50th Anniversary Celebration of His Life and Works’. Funded by DCU FHSS Creative Output Research Scheme. https://dcu.mused.org/en. [Online]
 

Patricia Lynch Collection

Children's author, Patricia Lynch, was born in Cork in 1898. The library holds 70 of her titles and an almost complete set of her first editions. One particular gem is a first-edition copy of Asal Fhéar na Mónadh (The turf-cutter's donkey), translated by Maighréad Nic Mhaicín and illustrated by Jack B. Yeats. For an overview of this collectionsee the National Collection of Children’s Books (NCCB) project at https://nccb.tcd.ie/libraries-collections.

Ladybird Collection

The library holds approximately 500 items published with the Ladybird trademark since 1940. There has been little formal scoping of this collection and it presents significant research opportunities for scholars.

Schoolbook Collection

The Schoolbook Collection comprises more than 10,000 items published to support the national school curricula. This collection reflects what was taught in Irish schools. There has been little formal scoping of this collection and it presents significant research opportunities for scholars. The majority of titles are from the twentieth century, but the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are also represented. The earliest title is a sermon by Edward Pelling dated 1679. Elements of this collection are the Maguire Collection purchased in the 1980s, and a significant donation by Dr. Vanessa Rutherford, of UCC. It is noteworthy that opportunities to fill in any 'gaps' in this collection are rapidly diminishing. For an overview of this collection, see the National Collection of Children’s Books (NCCB) project at https://nccb.tcd.ie/libraries-collections.

The School of English is a designated nominating body for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA). The decision was made by the Swedish award jury at its meeting in December 2019. 

The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award was founded by the Swedish government in 2002 and is administrated by the Swedish Arts Council. At SEK 5 million, it is the world's largest award for children's and young adult literature. The award is given annually to a single laureate or to several. Authors, illustrators, oral storytellers and reading promoters are eligible for the award, which is designed to promote interest in children's and young adult literature. An expert jury selects the laureate(s) from candidates nominated by designated institutions and organisations worldwide. 

DCU nominating meetings are held in February and are open to everyone with a teaching, research or purely personal interest in children’s and young adult literature.