Correspondence (1963-70), mainly between Swayne and W. H. Milner, Portarlington, relating to a film made by Fr. Kennedy in 1921 ostensibly on the turf-cutting industry in the area, but also features the exhumation of skulls of the ‘Ballynowlart Martyrs’ who were purportedly burned alive in Ballynowlart church by English forces in the 1600s. Correspondence culminates in the deposit of the film in the National Library of Ireland.

Offaly Sinn Féin material: original resolution from North and South Offaly Executive Sinn Féin signed by Comd. Ua Duinn relating to its support of the Treaty (29 December 1921) and calling on Offaly’s representative Dr McCartan to vote for ratification, and a pamphlet entitled 'Terms of Reference 23 May 1922 Adjourned Árd-Fheis of Sinn Féin'.

Leaflets and other printed material relating to Croghan Feis organised by Offaly Vocational Education Committee (1949).
Manuscripts notes on placenames and history of Killeigh Parish and Philipstown (Daingean).

Publications: Programme for Walsh Island Second National Turf-cutting competition (1935); Knockbeg Centenary Year Book (1948); and Suncroft, a Parish Magazine (1970).

Includes a letter from Toler R. Garvey Jr land agent at Birr Castle to ‘V.J. Beaumont Nesbitt’, Tubberdaly, Edenderry on 9 June 1921 who records agitations in Birr, and laments a former way of life:

‘...Although things are bad they are not a bit worse than I had anticipated, but we must reach an end of it sometime and we, or whoever is left, may once again be able to live in peace, though I don’t think they will ever know the comfort and good times which we had in the past.’

Also includes letter to Hon. Geoffrey Parsons on 8 December 1921, revealing the anxiety surrounding the situation for landowners following the War of Independence:

‘I enclose... Notice from the Local Government Board of their intention to take the land at Croghan after all, but in view of the Settlement just arrived at on the Irish question, it seems very doubtful that they will proceed with the matter. Things have moved rapidly since I saw you and we shall be face to face with a totally new situation.’