Three Candles Press Collection
Collection Dates: [c1926]-1972
Extent: 189 items
Colm Ó Lochlainn was born William Gerard O'Loughlin in Drumcondra, Dublin in 1892. Ó Lochlainn was educated at Belvedere College and at St Mary's College, Rathmines, before entering University College Dublin in 1910.
He joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) in 1913 and was one of the founding members of the Executive of the Irish Volunteers in November 1913.
Ó Lochlainn worked for the family publishing business during the revolutionary era and in 1926 he founded the Three Candles Press, based in Fleet Street, Dublin. Ó Lochlainn was closely involved at every stage of the production of the company's books.
The collection contains 189 items and provides a unique window into early twentieth-century Irish history, music and literature.
Ó Lochlainn’s publications are regarded as the work of a master printer. He designed a new Irish language typeface, named Colum Cille, based on lettering found in medieval Celtic manuscripts. He also produced the ‘Baothin’ display type modelled on German ‘Hammerschrift’. Many examples of this fine printwork are found within this unique collection.
An Irish sanctuary: birds of the North Bull (Kennedy, P. G. 1953)
For more information and reading on the Three Candles Press and Colm Ó Lochlainn:
RTÉ Doc on One: The Three Candles
First broadcast 24th November, 1976
Colm O Lochlainn - Bibliophile And Reluctant Revolutionary
By Dermot McGuinne
Features, Issue 4 (July/August 2026), Volume 34
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