O’Muraile, Nollaig. Mayo Places. Their Names & Origins. First Edition. Dublin, FNT, 1985. 17 x 11 cm. 136 pages, (4). With a few B&W line maps. Original decorated paperback. Soft covers. Very good condition. Minor shelf wear, rubbing and bumping. Edges dust dulled. Name of previous owner on first blank. From the library of Prof. Etienne Rynne (see comments). Internally clean.

Provenance: Prof Etienne Rynne, MRIA, FSA: born September 11th, 1932; died June 22nd, 2012, was emeritus professor of archaeology at NUI Galway. He was a renowned scholar of early Irish art, but was drawn to a wide range of subjects.
Born in 1932, he was one of six children of Dr Michael Rynne, a veteran of the War of Independence who served as Irish ambassador to Spain; his mother was Nathalie Fournier, from France.
He was educated at Terenure College and Clongowes Wood College and attended Coláiste na Rinne and École des Roches, Normandy. He studied archaeology and French at University College Dublin, where he was auditor of the archaeological society. He graduated with a BA in 1953 and followed this with an MA in archaeology in 1955.
He spent a year abroad on an NUI travel studentship and joined the staff of the National Museum in 1957. One of his first assignments was to participate in the Hill of Tara excavations. During his time at the NMI, Rynne developed a close friendship with its director, Dr A. T. Lucas (1911-86), and on 1 April 1967 married his daughter Aideen in Dublin. That year, he left the museum to take up a lectureship in archaeology at University College Galway, and remained there for thirty-one years, until his retirement as professor of Celtic archaeology in 1998. Despite his heavy workload, Rynne wrote close to one hundred academic papers in local and international journals, his expansive subject matter including not only archaeology but also folklore and war of independence history. Rynne’s contribution to the history and heritage of his adopted province of Connacht and city of Galway was, however, widely acknowledged as immense. Once settled in UCG, he made his home in the medieval town of Athenry, where he engaged enthusiastically with the local community via lectures, walks and talks on the town’s famous walls and castle. Although Dublin-born, he became firmly entrenched in Galway’s colourful past and was instrumental in the founding of the city’s first municipal museum, in Comerford House, adjacent to the Spanish Arch, in 1971. Drawing on his considerable NMI experience, he acted as honorary curator for the Galway museum for over a decade, before its move to the present purpose-built building in 2007. Ever willing to disseminate the story of Galway’s past beyond the twin towers of its university, to its citizens and the wider public, he compiled the Tourist trail of old Galway (1977). This signposted walking tour of Galway communicates the city’s importance in the medieval world, not only from an Irish, but also from a European and global perspective, and represents an enduring legacy to the self-styled promoter and protector of the city’s heritage.
Elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy (1966), Rynne was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (1975), and president of both the Cambrian Society of Wales (1999) and the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society (1989-94). Although diagnosed with heart disease in 1991, he remained active long after his retirement in 1998, continuing to publish papers on aspects of Irish archaeology up to his death in 2012. He was buried in the New Cemetery, Athenry.

• Keywords: History · History & Culture · History of Ireland · Ireland · Language
• Language: English
• First edition
• Inventory Number: 102063AB

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