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OBrien Lam Collection

Eoin O'Brien

Eoin O'Brien - Samuel Beckett Correspondence PDF | 236KB
Identity Statement

Title
O'Brien / Lam Collection.

Level of Description
Fonds.

Context

Creator
Eoin O'Brien

Biographical History

Professor Eoin O’Brien is a cardiologist and Professor of Biomolecular and Biomedical Research at UCD, who has also contributed to the literary world via his work as both an author and editor of literary criticism and biographies. Prof. O’Brien was born December 20th, 1939, in Pembroke Nursing Home to parents Gerard T. O’Brien and Muriel (née Smiddy), both of whom were doctors.

Prof. O’Brien studied at the Royal College of Surgeons before becoming a General Practitioner in Birmingham, and soon after devoted himself to the field of cardiology. This led him to positions as a Consulting Physician in various UK and Ireland hospitals, including St. Laurence’s, The Charitable Infirmary, The Rotunda, and Beaumont, before becoming Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine (RCSI) in 1991. In 2001, O’Brien was appointed Professor of Molecular Pharmacology in the Conway Institute of Biomolecular and Biomedical Research, University College Dublin. He is a former President of the Irish Heart Foundation (2006-09) and founder and Chairman of the Irish Skin Foundation (2011-17).

O’Brien has authored and edited several books, including the 1986 publication The Beckett Country: Samuel Beckett’s Ireland in celebration of the 80th birthday of his friend, Irish novelist, playwright and poet, Samuel Beckett. In the same year, O’Brien co-authored the catalogue accompanying the exhibition The Beckett Country, a forty panel exhibition opened at Reading University, now on loan to UCD’s James Joyce Library. His biographical authorship spans the medical, literary and art worlds, contributing to works on critic A.J. Leventhal, artist Nevill Johnson, and physician Sir Dominic Corrigan amongst others. He has also published works on the histories of several of Dublin’s medical institutions.

Source of Acquisition
Transferred to UCD between 2007 and 2020. The archive was transferred thanks to a partnership between Eoin O’Brien and Datto Dr. Leslie Lam.

Scope and Content
  • Beckett Archive: Correspondence, papers, photographs and memorabilia relating to Samuel Beckett and The Beckett Country publication and the Photographic Exhibition of The Beckett Country.  This includes personal Beckett correspondence, Samuel Beckett Signature pages for the Beckett Country and a Special edition of The Beckett Country.
  • Nevill Johnson Archive: Correspondence, writings, paintings and memorabilia relating to the artist, photographer and writer, Nevill Johnson
  • Medical History & Scientific Archive: Correspondence, writings, and a large photographic collection relating to the history of Irish medicine
  • Brian O’Doherty Archive: Books relating to Brian O’Doherty, papers, correspondence and miscellaneous items and interview of O’Doherty by E. O’Brien.

UCD Archives holds the Smiddy Archive: Correspondence, papers, photographs and memorabilia relating to the first ambassador to the United States, Professor Timothy Smiddy, grandfather of Eoin O’Brien.

Access and Use

Reproduction
Photocopying of archival collections is not permitted. Photography permissions and policies vary. Please contact (opens in a new window)special.collections@ucd.ie for more details regarding the photography of this specific collection.

Language
English.

Finding Aid
Box list available for the medical history and scientific archive and for part of the Beckett Country exhibition archive.

UCD Special Collections

James Joyce Library, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.
T: +353 1 716 7149 | E: special.collections@ucd.ie