Archives and resources
Where the texts actually are: digital corpora, manuscript collections, poetry archives and the scholarly editions.
Where the texts actually are. This is the page for someone who has found a poet and now needs the work, the manuscript, or a reliable edition — and it is the answer to every gap note in the poet index.
All URLs below were checked and resolve as of 2026-08-09.
Digital text corpora
CELT — Corpus of Electronic Texts
celt.ucc.ie · University College Cork
The single most useful free resource for early and medieval Irish literature. Full texts in Irish, Latin and English, many with facing translations, covering annals, saga, bardic verse, religious poetry and historical documents. Free, no registration.
For the periods where this directory is thinnest — early Irish, bardic, dispossession — CELT is where the poets are. If an entry here has no link, CELT is the first place to look.
ISOS — Irish Script on Screen
isos.dias.ie · Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies
Digitised images of Irish manuscripts from the major holding libraries — the Royal Irish Academy, Trinity College Dublin, the National Library, and collections abroad. High-resolution, catalogued, free to consult.
For anything before 1600 the manuscript is the primary evidence. A poem attributed to a bardic poet exists in a particular codex, in a particular hand, and ISOS is how you see it.
The Bardic Poetry Database
bardic.celt.dias.ie · DIAS
A catalogue of classical Irish bardic poetry — first lines, metres, manuscript sources, editions, and the poets to whom poems are attributed.
This is the resource that fixes the largest hole in this directory. The bardic era is represented here by a handful of names against a corpus of roughly two thousand poems. Anyone extending the poet index should start here.
ainm.ie
ainm.ie · Cló Iar-Chonnacht / Fiontar
The Irish-language biographical dictionary — thousands of entries on Irish-speaking writers, scholars and public figures, in Irish. Free.
Covers the Irish-language cohort across every period, and the fastest correction to this directory's imbalance between its Irish and English coverage.
Dictionary of Irish Biography
dib.ie · Royal Irish Academy
Around eleven thousand signed, scholarly biographies of figures from Ireland's history, including a large number of poets. Free to search and read.
The default authority link for any historical Irish figure, and preferable to Wikipedia wherever an entry exists.
Manuscript and library collections
| Holding | What it has |
|---|---|
| Royal Irish Academy · ria.ie | The largest collection of Irish-language manuscripts in the country, and the publisher of the Dictionary of Irish Biography. Site blocks automated access; consult directly |
| National Library of Ireland · nli.ie | Manuscripts, literary papers and a very substantial W.B. Yeats collection. Holds the largest collection of modern Irish literary archives |
| Trinity College Dublin | Medieval manuscripts alongside modern literary papers. Many holdings digitised via ISOS |
| UCD Special Collections | Modern Irish literary archives, including Austin Clarke's library of c. 5,000 volumes, transferred by Poetry Ireland |
| Linen Hall Library, Belfast · linenhall.com | Independent subscription library founded 1788. Ulster collections, the Northern Ireland Political Collection, and the natural home for the Ulster Scots material |
Poetry-specific archives
UCD Irish Poetry Reading Archive
digital.ucd.ie · University College Dublin
Video and audio of Irish poets reading their own work, with manuscript pages and commentary. Poets recorded in their own voices — a different kind of record from the printed text, and one that will matter more as the poets recorded pass out of living memory.
The Seamus Heaney Working Poetry Library
Poetry Ireland, 11 Parnell Square East, Dublin · poetryireland.ie
A custom-designed working library of poetry, opened in May 2026 as part of Poetry Ireland's new home. Reference collection rather than archive.
Seamus Heaney HomePlace
seamusheaneyhome.com · Bellaghy, Co. Derry
Arts and literary centre in Heaney's home village, with an exhibition built around his life and work, and a live programme.
Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies — School of Celtic Studies
Publisher of the standard scholarly editions of early and medieval Irish verse, and host of both ISOS and the Bardic Poetry Database. Where the authoritative texts come from.
Editions and scholarly series
Named here because the poet index needs them: for poets with no online presence, the gap note should point at a printed edition, and these are the series that publish them.
- Irish Texts Society — bilingual scholarly editions of Irish-language texts since 1898. The standard route to bardic and early modern poets.
- DIAS — Mediaeval and Modern Irish Series; the critical editions.
- Cork University Press — publisher of Field Day volumes IV and V.
- An Clóchomhar, Coiscéim, Cló Iar-Chonnacht — Irish-language literary publishing; see publishers.
How this connects to the poet index
The directory holds a large minority of poets with no online source at all — chiefly the bardic, early Irish and Ulster Scots cohorts. Per the roadmap, that absence is recorded rather than hidden, and the gap note points the reader at the print record.
This page is what the gap notes point to. A note reading "No online source located; listed in the Bardic Poetry Database, texts in the Irish Texts Society edition" is only useful if the reader can then find those things — which is the job of this page.
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