Radical or Reactionary? James Wilkinson, Cork Public Library, and Identity in the Irish Free State

Published December 2018, available in hard copy and also freely available as a pdf. This edited collection arose from the Radical Collections: Radicalism and Libraries and Archives Conference in March 2017, hosted by the Senate House Library, University of London. This chapter considers whether James Wilkinson, public librarian in Cork through the tumultuous period of the War of Independence, the Irish Civil War, and the establishment of the Irish Free State, should be considered radical or reactionary on the basis of the stock selection acquired for children of the newly-independent state. "Radical Collections: Re-examining the Roots of Collections, Practices and Information Professions", edited by Jordan Landes, Richard Espley.