A COLLECTION of Irish travel and heritage literature spanning some 400 years has been acquired by the University of Limerick (UL), which describes the collection as priceless.
The McAnally Collection represents more than five decades of work by the late solicitor and book collector Ciaran McAnally. It ranges from 17th-century material to present-day guides and contains original manuscripts and accounts of travel in Ireland.
"This collection is a priceless acquisition for the university and, moreover, for Ireland, as we can now be confident that a significant part of our heritage will be preserved in perpetuity. It will undoubtedly provide a vital research resource . . ." explained Prof Jim Deegan, director of the National Centre for Tourism Policy Studies (NCTPS) at UL.
The NCTPS and the Glucksman Library has ambitious plans for how the collection can be linked to tourism development.
Images, video and dialogue will be relayed directly to mobile phones, enabling tourists to source a great deal of the information from the collection.