Lost historic Gaelic manuscripts found after 50 years

[Still Waters]

Dozens of Gaelic manuscripts have been found and returned to the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh after being missing for more than 50 years.

Police investigated the disappearance of the 56 historic documents in the 1960s, but no trace of them could be found.

The items include poetry, sermons, songs and previously unknown works.

The manuscripts were collected by the Rev Donald MacNicol, minister of Lismore, and the the Rev Alexander Irvine, minister of Little Dunkeld, in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The missing documents form part of their wider collections, which have been important sources for Gaelic editors and academics for over 200 years.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8d9ly3zj9yo

[+OverSword]

I wonder if Professor Rob Ó Maolalaigh stole them?  Hard to believe a scholar like that would not have heard they were being sought.

[Ozymandias]

As an Irishman, I am delighted to hear of their recovery. The tragedy for Gaelic scholarship and learning is that many such manuscripts were destroyed or allowed to perish for lack of care by people who did not appreciate their importance or placed no value on them. In this case, if, as reported, they were catalogued by the National Library of Scotland, they must have been removed unofficially by an insider, otherwise they would have been signed out on the record. It could not have been Prof. Ó Maolalaigh, he is the person who found them.