Central Catholic Library
The Central Catholic Library is a library located in Dublin, Ireland. It was founded by Fr. Stephen Brown, S.J. on June 25, 1922 with the goal of helping the laity to educate themselves. It is a voluntary subscription library (the last remaining in the Republic of Ireland) and open to visitors six days a week. It has a lending section, a reference section and several collections stored in different parts of the building. It is located at 74 Merrion Square, Dublin 2.HistoryThe Library was founded by Fr. Stephen Brown in 1922. From the outset, it provided reading rooms which were open seven days a week from 11 am. to 10 pm. Four daily newspapers were provided as well as Catholic weeklies from England, USA, Canada, Argentina, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.The facilities of the reading rooms were provided free of charge and were readily availed of by people from all walks of life. Members of all denominations were welcomed - a policy which still prevails.The Library continued to grow and expand over the following years, but on 9 March 1932 disaster struck: a serious fire destroyed the garage underneath the Reading Room. The Library suffered severely as the floor of the Lending Department became unsafe and the windows and doors were destroyed.Two valuable collections, the Healy Collection and the Works on Sacred Art and Archaeology, were almost completely destroyed either by fire or water. The Library was forced to close for two months.