A ‘republic of learning’: Bulmer Hobson, nationalism and the printed word

It all began with a love of books. Bulmer Hobson (1883-1969), one of the earliest chairmen of the Whitechurch Library Committee, is best known for his career as an Irish advanced nationalist leader between 1900 and 1916. Hobson’s lifelong love of books is a thread that links his early attraction to the nationalist movement to his future involvement with the Whitechurch Library and other activities related to the printed word. In addition to co-founding such advanced nationalist organisations as the Dungannon Clubs, Na Fianna Éireann and the Irish Volunteers, he was also a leading figure in the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) and Sinn Féin. However, his disapproval of what he considered to be an untimely rebellion in 1916 and his evasion of arrest in the aftermath of the Easter Rising helped to scuttle what appeared to be a promising political career in an independent Ireland. After the Rising, Hobson worked in book publishing before becoming a civil servant. In his spare time he participated in efforts to build up the new state culturally and economically