Cartlann Digiteach Cuala has just struck gold!

We have just acquired a copy of a unique Scrapbook covering Hurling & Football in Dalkey – mostly covering Harold Boys N.S. Dalkey and Dalkey Mitchells GAA Club – both critical to Cuala’s formative years.

The Album, compiled by legendary Harold Dalkey schoolmaster Proinsias Ó Maoláin, covers a period from ’50s up to 70’s.  It contains a wide range of handwritten notes, photographs, newspaper cuttings, songs and poems – all penned by the author or his pupils. Overall, it paints a vivid picture of how Gaelic Games were organised in and around Dalkey during the period.   It also reveals some new historical details, not previously formally recorded,  about Cuala’s own roots and resurrects images that were thought to be lost forever.

This is precisely the sort of material that we hoped would be uncovered when we first launched our history project in 2009 and we are most grateful that it was made available to the archive.

The amount of material contained in this particular treasure trove is so great that that it would be impossible for us to present it in a single posting.  Instead, we will “reveal” it in a series of articles over the coming weeks.  Here’s hoping it will inspire others to root in their attics for similar material.

Update: The full album is now available to view in full in the Cuala Gallery