Sir John Thomas Gilbert was an Irish archivist, antiquarian and historian.

Life

John Thomas Gilbert was the second son of John Gilbert, an English Protestant, who was Portuguese consul in Dublin, and Marianne Gilbert, an Irish Catholic, daughter of Henry Costello. He was born in Jervis Street, Dublin. His early days were spent at Branackstown, County Meath

County Meath

County Meath is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Mid-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the ancient Kingdom of Mide . Meath County Council is the local authority for the county...

. He was educated at Bective College, Dublin, and at Prior Park

Prior Park College

Prior Park College is a Roman Catholic co-educational independent school for both day and boarding pupils.It is situated on a hill overlooking the city of Bath, in Somerset, in south-west England...

, near Bath, England. He received no university training, as his mother was unwilling for him to attend Trinity College, Dublin

Trinity College, Dublin

Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...

 - at that time the only university in Dublin. In 1846 his family moved to Blackrock, a Dublin suburb, where he resided until his death, fifty-two years later.

Aged nineteen, he was elected to the Council of the Celtic Society, and thus became associated with some of the famous writers and orators of the age: Butt

Isaac Butt

Isaac Butt Q.C. M.P. was an Irish barrister, politician, Member of Parliament , and the founder and first leader of a number of Irish nationalist parties and organisations, including the Irish Metropolitan Conservative Society in 1836, the Home Government Association in 1870 and in 1873 the Home...

, Duffy, Ferguson

Samuel Ferguson

Sir Samuel Ferguson was an Irish poet, barrister, antiquarian, artist and public servant. Perhaps the most important Ulster-Scot poet of the 19th century, because of his interest in Irish mythology and early Irish history he can be seen as a forerunner of William Butler Yeats and the other poets...

, Mitchel

John Mitchel

John Mitchel was an Irish nationalist activist, solicitor and political journalist. Born in Camnish, near Dungiven, County Londonderry, Ireland he became a leading member of both Young Ireland and the Irish Confederation...

, O'Hagan, and Smith O'Brien

William Smith O'Brien

William Smith O'Brien was an Irish Nationalist and Member of Parliament and leader of the Young Ireland movement. He was convicted of sedition for his part in the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848, but his sentence of death was commuted to deportation to Van Diemen's Land. In 1854, he was...

. His essay "Historical Literature of Ireland" appeared in 1851, and four years later he became a Member of the Royal Irish Academy

Royal Irish Academy

The Royal Irish Academy , based in Dublin, is an all-Ireland, independent, academic body that promotes study and excellence in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. It is one of Ireland's premier learned societies and cultural institutions and currently has around 420 Members, elected in...

, and secretary of the Irish Celtic and Archaeological Society, whose members included O'Donovan

John O'Donovan (scholar)

John O'Donovan , from Atateemore, in the parish of Kilcolumb, County Kilkenny, and educated at Hunt's Academy, Waterford, was an Irish language scholar from Ireland.-Life:...

, O'Curry

Eugene O'Curry

-Life:He was born at Doonaha, near Carrigaholt, County Clare, the son of Eoghan Ó Comhraí, a farmer, and his wife Cáit. Eoghan had spent some time as a travelling pedlar and had developed an interest in Irish folklore and music. Unusually for someone of his background, he appears to have been...

, Graves, Todd

James Henthorn Todd

James Henthorn Todd was a biblical scholar, educator, and Irish historian. He is noted for his efforts to place religious disagreements on a rational historical footing, for his advocacy of a liberal form of Protestantism, and for his endeavours as an educator, librarian, and scholar in Irish...

, and Wilde

William Wilde

Sir William Robert Wills Wilde MD, FRCSI, was an Irish eye and ear surgeon, as well as an author of significant works on medicine, archaeology and folklore, particularly concerning his native Ireland...

.

Taking on the most important posts in the historical and antiquarian societies, he became librarian of the Royal Irish Academy

Royal Irish Academy

The Royal Irish Academy , based in Dublin, is an all-Ireland, independent, academic body that promotes study and excellence in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. It is one of Ireland's premier learned societies and cultural institutions and currently has around 420 Members, elected in...

 for thirty-four years. In 1891 he married the Irish novelist Rosa Mulholland

Rosa Mulholland

Rosa Mulholland was an Irish novelist, poet and playwright.-Life:She was born in Belfast, the daughter of Dr. Joseph Stevenson Mulholland of Newry. She spent some years in a remote mountainous part of the West of Ireland after the death of her father. Her first novel was Dumana , under the...

. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from the Royal University in 1892, and five years later was knighted for his services to archaeology and history.

The Gilbert Library, in Dublin's Pearse Street

Pearse Street, Dublin

Pearse Street is one of the longest streets in Dublin and varies in use along its length. Its western end meets College Street near Townsend Street. Trinity College, Dublin forms its southern side here, with a Garda station to the north. As one proceeds east, Tara Street joins it along with a fire...

, is named after him.

Works

• History of the City of Dublin (1854-9), in three volumes.
• History and Treatment of the Public Records of Ireland (1863) which caused considerable sensation, arguing to the government the futility of entrusting the publication of Irish State documents to men unskilled in the Irish language.
• History of the Viceroys of Ireland (1865)
• Calendar of the Ancient Records of Dublin (7 vols., 1889–98)
• History of the Irish Confederation and the War in Ireland, 1641-9 (7 vols., 1882–91)
• Jacobite Narrative of the War in Ireland, 1688-91 (1892).

Celtic scholars are indebted to him for photographic reproductions of ancient Irish manuscripts, for the establishment of the Todd lectureship in Celtic, and also for editions of Leabhar na h-Uidhre

Lebor na hUidre

Lebor na hUidre or the Book of the Dun Cow is an Irish vellum manuscript dating to the 12th century. It is the oldest extant manuscript in Irish. It is held in the Royal Irish Academy and is badly damaged: only 67 leaves remain and many of the texts are incomplete...

and Leabhar Breac

An Leabhar Breac

Leabhar Breac , now less commonly Leabhar Mór Dúna Doighre or possibly erroneously, Leabhar Breac Mic Aodhagáin , is a medieval Irish vellum manuscript containing Middle Irish and Hiberno-Latin writings...

.