Kevin B. Nowlan Papers RIA Special List No. A046 Personal papers of Kevin B. Nowlan MRIA (1921-2013), Professor of History at University College Dublin and champion of architectural preservation. Catalogued by Karen de Lacey, June 2016 1 IDENTITY STATEMENT Reference code RIA/KBN Title Kevin B. Nowlan Papers Date range 1942 - 2013 Level of description Fonds Extent 61 archival boxes CONTEXT Administrative history Kevin Barry Nowlan was born in Dublin on 2nd November 1921 to John Nolan, a heating and ventilation engineer, and his wife Barbara (née O’Neill). He attended Belvedere College for his primary and secondary schooling. Accepted by University College Dublin (UCD) for a BA in Modern History & Political Economy, he achieved first place in his undergraduate exams and graduated with First Class Honours in 1943 before being called to the Irish Bar in 1945. Recipient of a UCD postgraduate scholarship, he was awarded a MA in Modern Irish History in 1950 before taking leave from his work as Assistant Lecturer in UCD to attend Peterhouse College, Cambridge University for postgraduate studies, completing a Ph.D. on the subject of Anglo-Irish relations 1841-1850 in 1955. He spent the year 1953-1954 at the University of Marburg in Germany on a German government scholarship. Nowlan was first appointed to the staff of UCD in 1948 as an Assistant Lecturer in the Department of History; further appointments in 1957 saw him promoted to College Lecturer and in 1966, to Associate Professor of Modern Irish History, a position he would hold until his retirement in 1986. In 1974, he had been appointed the first Chairman of the Combined Departments of History. Following his retirement, he was made an Emeritus Professor and acted as President of UCD’s Maurice Kennedy Research Centre for Emeritus Staff. Nowlan is perhaps best known and remembered as an enthusiastic and active member of many cultural associations, particularly those focused on architectural preservation. His interest in Dublin’s architectural heritage began early in life; he was a member of the Old Dublin Society as a teenager, apparently leading the Society on a tour of north county Dublin’s churches at the age of fifteen. The organisations in which he played an integral role are numerous and this is reflected in this collection in the large amount of material from the Alfred Beit 2 Foundation, Castletown Foundation, Dublin Civic Group, Dublin Civic Trust and Mountjoy Square Estates, amongst many others. At a time when there was little public concern about the destruction or modification of Dublin’s architectural heritage Nowlan and others campaigned against and called attention to the neglect facing the city’s built heritage. Nowlan was a committee member of the Alfred Beit Foundation from its inaugural meeting in 1976 until his death in 2013. Additionally, he was President of the Dublin Civic Trust from its foundation in 1992, Chairman of the Castletown Foundation from 1983 and President of An Taisce from 1983 to 1987. He also sat on a variety of smaller committees, panels, trusts and advisory groups where his vast experience and keen judgement were highly sought after. These include the Dublin Architectural Study Group, the Historic Irish Houses and Gardens Association (HITHA), Fota Foundation, Heritage Advisory Committee and the Irish Historic Properties Committee, amongst many others. Nowlan was not only interested in the preservation of larger houses such as Castletown and Russborough, but was an ardent protector of all of Dublin’s built heritage, as evidenced by his role as Chairman of the Dublin Civic Group which kept a watchful eye on Dublin City developers from the 1960s to the 1990s. The Dublin Civic Group records in the Nowlan Papers appear to be the Group’s own archive and within it can be found a wealth of information on the Group’s attempts to halt the demolition and modification of many Dublin buildings. Nowlan was also involved in Mariga Guinness’s Mountjoy Square Estates Ltd, founded in 1968 in an attempt to halt efforts by a development company to demolish and re-develop twenty houses on Mountjoy Square. Extensive correspondence details the negotiations alongside details of the individual properties. Nowlan was also involved with a number of historical organisations. He was a committee member of the Irish Historical Society from his student days in the 1940s, acting as its Treasurer for many years. Additionally, he was involved in European organisations such as the International Committee for Historical Sciences (Comité International des Sciences Historiques) and he acted as Chairman of a research group for a European Science Foundation project during the 1980s which examined the political representation of minority ethnic groups. Of particular interest in this collection is his work as Historical Advisor to both Raidió Éireann and Teilifís Éireann in respect of the commemorative programming for the 1916 Easter Rising Golden Jubilee in 1966. He received a number of honours for his work. In 1977, he was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy and acted as Vice-President 1980-1983 and 1985-1989. In 1980 he was awarded a Commander’s Cross by the Federal Republic of Germany in recognition of his research and academic links with Germany. 3 In the last years of his life he was involved in the campaign to protect the park at Dartmouth Square where he lived. He was active until the weeks before his death, on 4 February 2013 at the age of 91. Archival history These papers were donated to the Royal Irish Academy in three lots from August to December 2013 following Kevin B. Nowlan’s death in February 2013. Documents, often still in hanging files, were taken directly from filing cabinets and placed in boxes for transportation to the RIA. Many boxes included details of the location in which the material was found (i.e. ‘from study’, ‘from bedroom’). The structure and original arrangement of the fonds remains largely the same. Multiple files on the Irish Georgian Society, Dublin Civic Group, Dublin Civic Trust were held with some duplicate material. The records are solely paper-based and no electronic records were accessioned as part of the collection. CONTENT AND STRUCTURE Scope and content The collection reflects Nowlan’s wide and varied interests and much of the material relates to his work with various cultural and heritage associations. The remainder pertains to his historical research, UCD and other work such as that with RTÉ as historical advisor for the 1966 commemorative celebrations. The first sub-series, Correspondence, indicates just how wide Nowlan’s social circle was – clergy, historians, minor nobility, former students, friends from Cambridge and family all feature in this series. Much of the correspondence appears to have survived by chance and as such, there are often only one or two items even from those correspondents whom Nowlan knew well. The series also features small files of correspondence with various organisations, invitations and business cards. 4 The second sub-series, Education, contains material relating to Nowlan’s education at University College Dublin, the University of Cambridge and Marburg University. His time at Cambridge is particularly well documented and many prominent British and Irish historians feature in the correspondence including George Kitson-Clark, Herbert Butterfield, Rev. Aubrey Gwynn, Desmond Williams and Robin Dudley-Edwards, amongst others. The third sub-series, Academic Career, relates to his appointments at University College Dublin in the Department of History. Applications for the positions of Associate Professorship and Professorship at UCD feature in this series. The fourth sub-series, UCD, relates to Nowlan’s career in the Department of History. Nowlan’s involvement in the wider university community is detailed in smaller files relating to academic exchanges, his work as an external examiner, the early years of the UCD Archives and Overseas Archives and the acquisition by UCD of the papers of Ernie O’Malley and Richard Mulcahy. The fifth sub-series, Research, relates to Nowlan’s own historical research and contains drafts of essays, lectures and talks written by Nowlan alongside correspondence with publishers and index cards created by him. The sixth sub-series, Work with Architectural and Cultural Organisations, contains 26 sub-sub-series on Nowlan’s work with a variety of organisations including Alfred Beit Foundation, Castletown Foundation, Dublin Civic Group, Dublin Civic Trust, Irish Georgian Society, An Taisce, the Dublin Architectural Study Group and Mountjoy Square Estates amongst many others. Some of this material has been closed due to its sensitive nature. The seventh sub-series, Work with Historical Organisations, contains material relating to historical organisations with which Nowlan was involved, including the Irish Historical Society, the International Committee of Historical Sciences, the Irish Manuscripts Commission and the European Science Foundation. Of particular interest are the documents and correspondence from Nowlan’s work as Historical Advisor to both Raidió Éireann and Teilifís Éireann in respect of the commemorative programming for the 50th anniversary of the 1916 Easter in 1966. The eighth sub-series, Work with Other Organisations, relates to work undertaken by Nowlan with the Malton Group and The Children’s Hospital, Temple Street. The ninth sub-series, Personal, contains personal diaries and notebooks written by Nowlan. This series has been closed in its entirety due to its sensitive nature. 5 System of arrangement The papers were in reasonably good condition and were well arranged. This arrangement has largely been kept. As a general rule, undated material has been placed at the beginning of a file or sub-series with the remainder of the material in chronological order. The records of the Dublin Civic Group appear to have come from their offices and retained the same filing system (by street name), detailing various campaigns and objections to planning applications.