Research and Course Guides: Irish Studies: Find Primary Sources

Finding Primary Source Books

Search LibrarySearch to find primary sources in books and ebooks. When searching the catalog, you will want to use specific subject headings in your searches to single out the primary source materials. These subject headings are specialized "tag" added to the records to books by catalog librarians to provide accurate descriptions of books. Using the following subject headings in your search will help you find the source material you seek:

correspondence
literary collections
personal narratives
pictorial works
songs and music
sources
diary or diaries

Find Period Books

Search these sources for digitized versions of period books and pamphlets:

Early English Books Online This link opens in a new window
Early English Books Online is searchable full-image primary source collection which features books, pamphlets, tracts and ephemera printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales in British North America as well as works published in English printed elsewhere between 1473 – 1700.

Google Books
Google Books is a collection of digitized books and periodicals. If the book is out of copyright, or the publisher has given its permission, the entire text. If it's in the public domain, you're free to download a PDF copy.
Hathi Trust
The HathiTrust Digital Library brings together the immense collections of partner institutions in digital form.

Find Period Magazine and Newspaper Articles

The digital collections and indexes listed below can help you locate period magazine, journal and newspaper articles published in Ireland and Great Britain from the 18th through the 21st centuries.

Irish Times (Historical) This link opens in a new window
This database provides you access to the complete content of the Irish Times newspaper (1859-2012) including all articles, editorials, advertisements and photographs.
British Periodicals Collection This link opens in a new window
With this database you have access to magazines, popular journals and other periodicals published in Great Britain dating from the from the late 1600s to World War II.
British Library Newspapers This link opens in a new window
In this database you will find full-text content and images of 70 national, regional and local 19th century British newspapers including both liberal and conservative perspectives on the social and political developments of the times in which they were published.
Guardian and The Observer (Historical) This link opens in a new window
This database provides you access to the complete content of the British newspapers, The Guardian (1821 - 2003) and The Observer (1791- 2003) including all articles, editorials, advertisements and photographs.
The Times (London) Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
This database provides access to a searchable full-text facsimile of The Times (London), the world’s oldest continuously published newspaper, from 1785 –2019.
Sunday Times Digital Archive 1822-2021 This link opens in a new window
This database provides access to a searchable full-text facsimile of The Sunday Times (London) newspaper from 1822 to 2021.