Now historians of Irish history will have the opportunity to study an extraordinary and unique collection, the Jackie Clarke Library in Ballina, Co Mayo, which contains material that will change the current narrative and, in particular, the history of the past century.

While others will have access to a state-of-the-art research library later this year, I had the amazing opportunity of opening three locked rooms in Jackie Clarke's home, sorting through boxes stacked to the ceiling, and unwrapping brown paper parcels. I got to look at each of the books, papers and pamphlets stacked high on tables when the bookcases, which went from floor to ceiling, had become too full to take any more. The task of going through this material was an enormous undertaking, nine months of hand-sorting.

The Jackie Clarke Library spans nearly 400 years of Irish history and contains rare books, manuscripts, photographs, legal papers, pamphlets, handbills, newspapers, autograph books, newssheets, circulars, reports, letters, periodicals, cartoons, maps, minute books, theses, articles and proclamations.

What is most incredible about this library is that it was put together during the lifetime of one man, Jackie Clarke, (1928-2000). He was an ordinary man with an extraordinary passion for Ireland's history and love of country, and particularly its revolutionary tradition. His work has culminated in one of the most remarkable libraries on this island.

In a time of press censorship in the 1940s, Clarke, still only a schoolboy, became aware of how little he knew of the internment and later the executions of IRA prisoners in Arbour Hill and Mountjoy jails. He visited the Book Bureau run by Joe Clarke, survivor of the Mount Street Bridge battle in 1916. This friendship was the cornerstone for the building of this fine library.

The amassing of this library, a life's work, was begun by Clarke while he was a pupil at Blackrock College.

He recalled "scheming off" when his classmates went to rugby matches in town to go down the quays and browse the old bookshops. He collected when it was not fashionable or profitable to do so.

He later said: "I picked some newspapers up for a shilling but now they are worth a lot of money".

This library has many rare and important items and much that is unique and that was not known to exist. The first item in this collection dates from 1617. The earliest book dates from 1641. Jackie Clarke was well-known as the most comprehensive collector of 1798 material and his collection has many documents issued during that Rebellion, including a rare handbill.

Other unique and exceptional items in the library are an autograph book signed by members of the first Dail and the plenipotentiaries sent to negotiate the treaty in 1921, a collection of intelligence material gathered by the Westmeath battalion of the IRA during the War of Independence, documentation on the publishing of An Phobhlacht, material relating to the fatal shooting of Barney Casey in the Curragh camp in the 1940s, lectures and political speeches, and even a copy of a late draft, with corrections, of Bowyer Bell's The Secret Army. There are also over 250 pamphlets, a number of which were published privately or available only by subscription, which will provide new source material for scholars.

There is a substantial collection of 327 political cartoons dating from 1881-1896.

Within this library are the libraries of others, including the books and papers of Ernie O'Malley. There is also a substantial collection of material that once belonged to Douglas Hyde, including his own New Testament Bible translated from Greek to Irish, dated 1816.

There is a vast newspaper archive with extensive runs of newspapers such as Shan Van Vocht, edited by Alice Milligan and Anna Johnson, Nationality by Arthur Griffith, The Volunteer 1914-1916 (presentation copy Bulmer Hobson to JJ O'Connell, December 1917), Claidheamh The Penny Journal, and The Republic, edited by Liam Mellows. There is also a complete collection of the London Evening Post, 1714-1715. There are also Jackie Clarke's own scrapbooks and press cuttings, which in themselves are a truly remarkable achievement, as they span over 50 years from 1944 until the year of his death in 2000.

It is the wish of his wife Anne that this library be unveiled at the 90th anniversary of the 1916 Rising. The 1916 material in this collection is outstanding. The Proclamation is obviously there, but there is also the rarer 1917 proclamation. Each of the members of the military council is represented by personal items in this collection, including Thomas MacDonagh's diary written in French, handwritten and unpublished poetry by Joseph Mary Plunkett, the unpublished Le Roux manuscript, the life of Sean Mac Diarmada, and important documents written by Eamonn Ceannt from South Union Garrison, which were used as evidence against him at his court martial.

This library will bring scholars from the US and Europe to a market town on the western seaboard to study and research a superb collection which this extraordinary man amassed over his lifetime. It will be a testament to his love of country and its turbulent history.

Historian Sinead McCoole has been appointed curator/keeper of the Jackie Clarke Library Library played host to Parnell and Davitt THE Jackie Clarke Library will be officially opened next October in the historic Moy Hotel building in Ballina.

Michael Davitt and Charles Stewart Parnell are among those who delivered speeches from the balcony of the hotel.

The 5000 square-foot building will house the town library on the ground floor, with the Clarke collection occupying two more floors, including modern research facilities for visiting academics.

Award-winning international designer Anne Scroope, who was responsible for the redevelopment of Kilmainham Gaol, oversaw the design of the Ballina building, and historian Sinead McCoole has been employed as curator/keeper of the collection.

The Clarke Library is one part of Mayo county council's /20m redevelopment of Ballina which will also see the town getting a new theatre and an arts centre.

"We are indebted to Mayo county council. They have done an excellent job, " Jackie Clarke's widow Ann said last week.