Generally, work from the Drew University Library Research Resources page; most of the best sources are listed on the subject list under “History”.
Catalog:
In keyword mode, try combinations like “Northern Ireland and troubles”; open up the citations of your better finds and look for good subject headings to adopt for your research. For a more organized approach, try “Northern Ireland” or “Sinn Fein” in BROWSE mode, click on “Subject”, scroll through the available subheadings. This browsing allows you to study the MANY specialized subject histories that fall under "Ireland" and "Irish" and to use the time divisions to choose suitable books or just to search for good topics. When you have located some useful books...browse the shelves in that area.
Databases: Modern and 19th* Century
Use American indexing to help find unindexed Irish material.
Index of journal articles, books and dissertations on world history, excluding US and Canadian history, since 1450. (Switch to America History and Life for USA related topics such as Irish American participation). If you need to search BOTH databases at once, use "choose databases" to combine the databases. | Library Subscription | |
Searchable full text/page images for the New York Times, 1851 - 2003. Use Advanced search mode and set the time limits as narrowly as you can in order to avoid an overwhelming number of modern articles! Articles will appear with oldest first. Use National Newspapers Expanded to extend your search to present. | ||
Huge multi-disciplinary database with vast holdings in multiple fields. Try it; you'll like it. Use advanced search and expect useful results. Usually does not cover the last several years. | Library Subscription | |
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Indexes to American magazines and books of the 19th century (1800-1899). No full text. Library Subscription | ||
Indexes popular topics in popular American journals. Covers 1890 to the present with abstracts since 1984; No full text, but Drew owns many of the early sources. | Library Subscription | |
Famine? Colonialism? Conflict? How did they relate? Library Subscription | ||
Ethnic NewsWatch International Medieval BibliographyITER: Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance Online | Research containing full text articles from the ethnic viewpoints of American groups. Useful for Irish American history and viewpoints, academic and popular, on the Northern Ireland conflicts.\ | |
This pair of databases database can take your search back to about the collapse of Rome; what were your ancestors doing in 642? Be aware that these cover esoteric journals and have no full text...you will need time and help from your librarian to use them effectively! | | Library Subscription |
Irish News Articles of Recent Years:
A number of Irish newspapers and publications from the North as well as the Republic are available from LexisNexis Academic, but the process of searching is intricate and tricky. There are several ways to do anything in LexisNexis-look in all the dropdown menus!-but here is one: Open LexisNexis Academic. Click on "News" at the top left. In the News section, drop down the "Sources" menu and change it from "U.S. Newspapers and wires" to "News, All (English, full-text)"; also click "news" in the box below. Set the time span further below!! You can either choose a span or set a particular span fitting an event. Enter search terms as needed and search. From here on, modify using the "edit search" click, or you will have to re-do everything! Now, what you have will be a melange of material from all over the world...to get to Ireland, you have two possible paths: Click "Geography" over on the left and you will get clicks for Ireland and for cities. Some of the results will be from Irish papers, others from other papers or services reporting from Ireland. OR...click "Publication Name" and choose individual papers, like Belfast Telegraph. Your head may hurt from all the clicking necessary, but you will find material that cannot easily be found anywhere else.
Reference Tools:
Ref 941DA933 .50303 M489mM43 Medieval Ireland : an encyclopedia / Seán Duffy, editor ; associate editors, Ailbhe MacShamhráin, James Moynes. New York : Routledge, 2005.
Ref 941DA911 .5003 M123i 2006M34 Ireland : a reference guide from the Renaissance to the present / John P. McCarthy.http://192.107.39.200/web2/tramp2.exe/see_record/A099ksat.002?server=1home&item=1&item_source=1home New York, Facts On File, c2006.
Ref 941 DA912 .5003 E562e [E53 Encyclopedia of Irish history and culture / James S. Donnelly Jr., editor in chief ; Karl S. Bottigheimer ... et al., associate editors .|https://catalog.drew.edu/web2/tramp2.exe/see_record/A01urmj9.005?server=1home&item=5&item_source=1home] Farmington Hills, MI : Macmillan Reference USA, c2004.
Ref 941DA910 .5 I68i [D38 Irish studies / editor, John Goodby ; authors, Alex Davis ... et al.. |https://catalog.drew.edu/web2/tramp2.exe/see_record/A01urmj9.005?server=1home&item=6&item_source=1home] London : Arnold ; New York : Distributed in the United States of America by Oxford University Press, 2003.
Ref 941 DA906 .5003E56e 2003E52 The encyclopedia of Ireland / edited by Brian Lalor ; foreword by Frank McCourt. New Haven, Conn. : Yale University Press, 2003.
Ref 941 DA906 .5003E56eE53 The Encyclopedia of Ireland : an A-Z guide to its people, places, history, and culture / Ciaran Brady, general editor. New York : Oxford University Press, c2000.
Ref 941DA990 .60824E46c 1999U46 E44 Conflict in Northern Ireland : an encyclopedia / Sydney Elliott & W.D. Flackes. Santa Barbara, Calif. : ABC-CLIO, c1999.
Ref 941 G1831 .50202 E26aS1 E3 An atlas of Irish history; maps drawn by W. H. Bromage. London, Methuen, 1973.
Browsing: Generally, go to about 941.5 on F deck and start looking…arrangement by historical period will be apparent. Look around, open books, look at indexes and tables of content. This oft works better than computerized searching…really!
The Internet:
Try Google Advancedhttp://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en for general searching, Google Advanced Imagehttp://www.google.com/advanced_image_search?hl=en n for pictorial material. Study those search pages:
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Bruce Lancaster, Drew University Library Reference and Research
blancast@drew.edublancast@drew.edu, 973-408-3487
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