Well, everyone, this is it: my last post in this blog in its current iteration.

It's been lovely having this vast audience with which to share my views. I mean, not really vast (or even more than a very few people), but it's nice to remember that the work that I do can have meaning in the world. You know, if anyone ever studies Don Mullan or Sr. Helen (which I hope someone will - I think they've done valuable humanitarian work and that deserves to be highlighted and criticized and studied and interrogated and praised in mediums other than the newspaper and this blog), it'll be nice for me to know that it was me who made that possible. Well, me and the fact that they did all this hard work and then donated things to Depaul, which provided a space to study. (It's good to keep things in context.)

I finished my project on Monday, granting me some much-needed time to write the hundreds of pages of papers that I had to write for finals week and the week after that at Loyola. (Okay, sixty-ish, but it felt like hundreds.) I really want to thank the people that made this all possible. My supervisors were fantastic women who really supported me when I needed it and stepped off when they thought I was capable of doing things on my own - and they made a space for me and allowed me to come in and work in a space where they really didn't have the resources to take on another intern, really, but they made the time and did me a favor and that's wonderful.

So, signing off with just a few last pictures:

So: the last boxes! They are completely done, and a finding aid has been begun. That's a nice feeling. And, as of now, they live right behind the CSJs, who I finished ages ago!

But these boxes are for the next intern, who will tackle the last portion of the collection. I don't envy them: it's a lot of work. But I was glad to have begun it!

So: thanks for everything, everyone. Happy holidays!

Unfortunately, I have very little to report this week.

And I didn't even take very many pictures!

I'm almost done with processing the Bloody Sunday portion of the Don Mullan collection. Still finding nuggets of information and interesting things, but far fewer than I had in the past. So - I apologize for the brief post!

I am fairly certain that that is not the correct word. (Eminence does not equal imminence. But maybe Cardinal John O'Connor was about to occur!)

READ THIS. It is beautiful. And ridiculous. It was prompted by Canada's customs officials seizing some of Mullan's documents and books - he had said that he was doing personal travel when he was coming to give a speech, and they interpreted the books as "business-related," thus meaning that he was traveling under false pretenses. Obviously it was a huge mixup, but Mullan and others interpreted the seizure as politically motivated, which Canadian officials denied. Mullan sued, and many angry letters were sent - like this one!

Until next week, y'all,

Anne

I'm almost finished with the third (or fourth, or fifth, or whatever) go-'round with the Mullan papers.

That means that I've completed organizing the press clippings, copying them (I think I've permanently curved my spine from the hours spent bending over the copier...an exaggeration, but it feels true!) and putting them in to chronological order. The observer (hopefully scholar, maybe thrill-seeker) will presumably be able to follow the trajectory of Mullan's career, interests, and focuses - at least in his Bloody Sunday years.

So, once again, I've been paying attention to other things to garner interesting posts for this blog. I decided to give y'all a mini-tour of the SPCA, since that's where I've been working these weeks.

This was a map that the Archives was just given. It is very, very cool. It led to a long conversation about modern maps vs. maps from previous centuries, and the relative sturdiness thereof. 

This is part of the special collection. There's a very, very large collection on Napoleon. I don't actually know the story, but I think that it's a donation from a sole source - just someone that collected works on Napoleon.

We also have an extensive Charles Dickens collection.

And this (may be my favorite section) is all works published by Depaul faculty. Really, really interesting! I wish Loyola had something similar (or publicized it if they do. I know someone's been working on it but haven't heard much since May).

Books that need restoring...

More books in need of conservation...

And a few more...

Also, lots of old Depaul yearbooks - which they don't do anymore, but are a valuable resource for research on alumni...

Books!

This is where I work. I tend to be on the first or second desk, but sometimes work at the computer just out of view on the right. To the left is a sink and mini-fridge, so there's some community back here, which is nice.

What was Monica Lewinsky's role in the Clinton Administration, exactly? This was a strange, strange fax.

These men look interesting.

Candidate for MOST AWKWARD FAMILY PHOTO EVER. EVER. (Donal De Roiste looks like an older version of my partner. I'm a little bit frightened.)

Humanitarians doodle too!

Hee hee.

My hands get black after working with the newspapers for too long,

You can't really tell, but all the indentations in my fingers are filled with ink.

And just to remind everyone what I'm actually working with...this is a tragedy.

And this, left after the massacre, makes me want to vomit.

Here's Derry!

And here's a headline that was misspelled. Whoops.

'Til next week! I hope y'all had a great Thanksgiving break!

I feel like this is the third time I've gone through the Don Mullan collection.

This week, I was put on actually processing the Bloody Sunday collection. All Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, then, were spent removing files from the binders that Mullan stored them in, labeling them, and copying newspapers. I think I probably spent at least four hours in front of the copier this week - copying newspapers and old, faded faxes. (People, invest in decent paper!)

There is a story there. (Also, this is a bad word! Don't use it! It's sexist!)

Since I spent so much time looking at newspapers, it was interesting to see the contemporaneous stories. Apparently there are many sheep-related crimes.

...see?

No. No she is not. Stop it, John Lennon. This is not okay.

This is okay, though! Keep doing this!

This, too!

Look, I found a friend!

A desiccated Irish spider.

And some mold.

This is a pretty powerful symbol, the bloody handkerchief. It was waved by a priest who was present at Bloody Sunday as he went to give last rites to a fallen seventeen-year-old.

FANCY letterhead.

...apparently the minutes got pretty ridiculous for these meetings. (This is worth reading.)

See?

I do like Yoko Ono, despite that awful song above...

Occupation...what?

NOT Londonderry, thank you very much.

Just in case you were confused, here's a handy diagram about how the power relations in moviemaking works.

And this is a sad note to end things. It's hard to realize that there were women that were my age, 21, and widowed, maybe even with children. These are real people, which sometimes I forget.

See y'all next week!

This week, I spent with Don again! Though I'm done, my supervisor(s) wanted me to keep moving on the collection, since I'm the one who knows it best. So I just went through all of the papers that I had before and reorganized them, sorting them in to boxes: Bloody Sunday (six boxes), Dublin/Monaghan bombings (five boxes), Donal de Roiste (five boxes), Omagh bombings, Little Book research, various...it actually went really quickly, since I had done my job before so thoroughly. I just went through the boxes one by one, checking my container list - and I was able to get through it in two days, since I didn't work on Tuesday (doin' my civic duty with pride!). I think we were all surprised by how quickly it went, given the disorganization of the collection.

So that means that I don't have many pictures, since it was more of the same this week. I do have this for y'all, though:

I'M DONE!!!

I finished the Don Mullan collection this week.

Check this out:

Yep, that's my version of a container list. 20-some pages long!!!

The last week was mildly torturous, if that's possible. There wasn't much new information - all Donal de Roiste, all Adi Roche, and - weirdly enough - a substantial collection of newspapers from September/October 2001. I think Mullan was in the states on September 11th and picked up a bunch of newspapers...? And on his return to Ireland, he added Irish newspapers. It was really fascinating (and terribly sad) to read both our perspectives of the tragedy in the United States and then overseas perspectives. Difficult, difficult...

This was nice. (Do you think "the kid" was intending to write about Moby Dick?)

Aren't redcaps a type of evil mythical goblin-type thing? Apparently it's also a term for armyfolk. 

The highlighting is...mysterious.

Here's an example of the newspapers that I was reading on Tuesday. 

Doodles?

More doodles!!

See?

...and back to more serious pursuits. (Thank goodness for Freedom of Information Acts, is what I always say.)

Until next week!!