Drury Archive

Drury Archive Gifted to Mary Immaculate College

The Department of Philosophy at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, was presented with an important and valuable archive when Paul and Luke Drury gifted their father's collection of papers to the College. Maurice (or Con as he was more commonly referred to) Drury was born in 1907 in Exeter, of Irish parents. He read philosophy at the University of Cambridge where he studied under Ludwig Wittgenstein, the man regarded as perhaps the greatest philosopher of the 20th century. Drury qualified as a doctor in the 1930's and worked for most of his life in Saint Patrick's Hospital, Dublin. Dr. Drury maintained a close, lifelong friendship with Wittgenstein; the basis of their friendship appearing to have been their common interest in medicine and Psychiatry subjects.

Following consultation with the former Dean of Arts at MIC, Prof. John Hayes, Drury's sons, Luke O'Connor Drury, Professor of Astrophysics at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies and Paul Drury, Managing Editor, Associated Newspapers, decided to donate their father's papers to the College. The papers were archived by Jacqui Hayes, Limerick City Archivist on behalf of the College.  Emma O'Connor of MIC library completed the task of imaging the papers electronically, which means that interested researchers who wish to consult the papers in the library can do so without handling the original material.

Title of Archive and Conditions of Access

Title of the Archive and Catalogue

• The Drury Papers = title of the catalogue of the archive completed by Jackie Hayes, Limerick City Archivist and revised by Prof. John Hayes.
•  In the catalogue the archive is referred to as  “The Maurice O’Connor Drury Archive”

Conditions of Access

• The library offers access to the digitized version of “The Maurice O’Connor Drury Archive” + the digitized version of the catalogue “The Drury Papers”.
• Access to the paper archive is not offered.
• Access is offered at Mary Immaculate College Library, Limerick.
• See  below from the deed of gift. 

 Intellectual Property

The donated materials shall be made accessible to bona fide scholars, for purposes of private study and research only, in accordance with Mary Immaculate College policies. Such scholars will be entitled to publish limited extracts from the material (no more than about 10 percent of any one document) in line with standard ‘fair usage’ practice and provided there is due attribution of the source. For any more extensive publication, prior permission would have to be sought from the relevant copyright holders (Luke and Paul Drury for the Drury material, the Rush Rhees Archive for the Rhees material) 

Further Information

For further information please contact:
Emma O'Connor
Assistant Librarian
Mary Immaculate College
South Circular Road
Limerick

Tel.:  353-61-204369
Email: Emma.OConnor@mic.ul.ie