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In Pictures and Review: Comics in focus at The National Library of Ireland

By downthetubes Guests on August 16, 2025 • ( 1 )

David Ferguson reports on the recent Irish Comics-focused event at The National Library of Ireland…

Discovering Irish Comic Book History at the National Library of Ireland was an excellent discussion about the history and context of five comic books, and while I had thought it was just going to be in the comic con panel format that many of us would be familiar with, the format here in the beautiful and very comfortable Joy Theatre was very different and, I thought, very clever. Let me just talk about the panellists before I get into that.

Maeve Clancy is a comic book creator who has worked on a number of comics including on Irish history notably The Irish Civil War.

Maura McHugh has written a number of comics for companies like Dark Horse and 2000AD. She also co-wrote for Irish comics publisher Atomic Diner. The book, Jennifer Wilde, is set in the 1920s and the plot involves Irish revolutionaries and the ghost of Oscar Wilde. The video game adaptation was recently added to the Nintendo Switch.

Declan Shalvey is a well-known artist who has worked for almost every big name comic book company. Early in his career, he also worked on an Atomic Diner comic book, Freakshow.

Derek Landy is a screenwriter, novelist and, more recently comic book writer for Marvel. He is mostly known for his Skulduggery Pleasant series.

James Bacon is a comic book historian, writer, convention organiser and fanzine editor, and author of the new book, Irish Conflict in Comics in the 20th Century, Rebellion, Nazi Spies and The Troubles. (You can read my review here).

As we discovered during the panel, the panellists were shown some of the National Library’s collection beforehand. The format of the panel was James Bacon going through some slides displaying scans of the library’s collection, created especially for the panel. Various members of the panel would offer commentary and insight on each one.

The comics discussed were Greann from 1934, The Leprechaun from 1953, Irish Classics in Pictures Stories from Mercier Press in 1956, “Rebellion” in Atlas Comics Battle Action #21 in 1956 and “Eamon De Valera Hero of Ireland” in Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact Volume 24, no. 5, 1968. The comics all had interesting contributors: Theodore Rotman in Greann, Kurt Ceasar in The Leprechaun, Gladys Leech, an architectural artist from Cork doing the covers on the Irish Classics, Bob Forgione and Jack Abel on “Rebellion” and Joe Sinnot drawing “Eamon De Valera”, which allowed for interesting discourse.

The panellists put each in their historical context, discussed the influences on the comics and talked about the creators involved, where possible. Comics have always had an issue when it comes to credit and there was once incident where a writer’s name was just initials.

As I had mentioned, Maeve Clancy has created a number of comics based on Irish history. It was the first time I had heard her speak on a panel and I was very impressed by her knowledge of the history of Irish comics. Maeve mentioned she had worked with the library when working on some of her comics, highlighting its status as an important resource.

Maura McHugh is known as a writer, but she is well versed when it comes to the art side of things as well, discussing the influence or lack of influence of European comics on Irish ones. She also gave a lot of historical context too, referencing the censoring of comics around the infamous book Seduction of the Innocent. She also stressed the importance of libraries.

Declan Shalvey offered his insights on the art side of things, being impressed by artists who would have had a tougher time finding references for elements in their stories. Derek Landy pointed out the storytelling difference between the comics being discussed and their modern counterparts.

James Bacon was compere of the show and displayed his encyclopaedic knowledge of Irish comics whileDr. Sinéad McCoole, Keeper of Exhibitions, Learning and Programming, MC’d the event and her own historical knowledge, for instance that children were not thought about the Civil War during the 1950’s in school.

After extensive discussion, we were joined by Frances Clarke, who seems to have one of the best jobs in the planet, sourcing and acquiring comics for the National Library. We had learned how vital the comics that the National Library hold are: James noted that while he knows Mayo-based comic fan and Hibernia Comics publisher David McDonald had found a copy of the Leprechaun, that is the only one he has heard of outside the Library, and he, at the moment, knows of no other venue or person with copies of Greann.

Frances shared her gratitude at the assistance James has provided to the National Library. James has donated numerous comics, some from the 1940s, and these are now housed in the library under the James Bacon Comic Book Collection. Not only that, he provided important context for each piece donated. This relationship inspired this event, which, to my delight, Sinéad hopes to be the first of many comic book events. The panellists praised the library for showing comic books the respect they deserve as an art form.

Sinéad noted that the library is interested in more donations for their collection, which consists of comics created by Irish creators and comics with subject matter that pertains to Ireland.

Following the talk, the National Library were delighted to receive a generous donation from Professor Anthony Roche, who has donated a number of issues of the early comic fanzine Heroes Unlimited, of which he was founding editor. He is pictured here with Siobhán O’Donovan, from the NLI’s Periodicals team

I am very happy that a collection that preserves comic books exists, especially as it is available to be viewed by the public. I hope to make use of this resource in the future and hope to attend future events. This one was very informative and entertaing and I could not believe we were at time, an incredible debut comic event at The National Library of Ireland.

David Ferguson

David is a writer of stuff on comics and pop culture for GCN.ie. He is also a contributor and editor (Hugo nominated) for Journey Planet | Follow David on BlueSky

• James Bacon Comic Book Collection – National Library Catalogue Details

• Full details about Irish Conflict in Comics in the 20th Century, Rebellion, Nazi Spies and The Troubles are here on the Limit Breaks website

• Buy Irish Conflict in Comics from AmazonUK (Affiliate Link) | Amazon.com