Marsh's Library — the Archbishop's search

OVERVIEW

Marsh's Library, formerly St. Sepulchre's Library, stands in St. Patrick's Close beside St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin. Built to the order of Archbishop Narcissus Marsh and opened to the public in 1707, it was the first public library in Ireland and survives almost unaltered — dark oak bookcases, lettered bays and three wired alcoves or 'cages' where readers were locked in with the rarest books. It holds more than 25,000 volumes.

HISTORY

Marsh raised his niece Grace from childhood. At nineteen she fell in love with a clergyman, Charles Proby, vicar of Castleknock; Marsh disapproved, and she left his house and married in secret. Marsh's own diary entry survives and is quoted by the library: 'This evening betwixt eight and nine o'clock my niece Grace Marsh … stole privately out of my house … and (as it is reported) was that night married … Lord consider my affliction.' In the tradition she left a note of explanation hidden in one of the thousands of books, and he never found it.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

The ghost is described as an old man going along the bookcases at night, moving the books and putting them back — the Archbishop still looking for the letter. It is one of Dublin's oldest and best-known library hauntings. What makes the entry unusual is that the grief behind it is not folklore: Marsh wrote it down himself, in a diary that still exists.

VISITING

Open to visitors most days; admission charge. The reading rooms, the cages and Marsh's own books are on view. St. Patrick's Close, Dublin 8.