Lester, one of Ireland’s foremost diplomats, became High Commissioner in Danzig (Gdańsk, Poland) in 1934, during a period of increasing Nazi activity in the city. He returned to Geneva in 1937, and was appointed Deputy Secretary General of the League of Nations in 1940, remaining there until the functions of the League were replaced by the United Nations in 1946.

The collection contains diaries kept by Lester from 1935 to 1942. During the Second World War he buried the diaries in a metal case near the League of Nations headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. After the war ended, Lester retrieved the case and returned with the diaries to Ireland where this collection was subsequently donated to DCU Library by Patricia Kilroy and Ann Gorski, daughters of Seán Lester.

Lester’s personal papers cover his years as a High Commissioner of the League of Nations in the Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk) in the mid-1930s, and subsequently his time in Geneva during the League’s remaining years. The diaries bear witness to Ireland’s commitment to European and international affairs. Now these papers can be transcribed during the Lester Seán Run, taking place from October 2023 to February 2024.

The project is structured around teaching second level students how to plan, research and write their research study as part of the Irish Leaving Certificate in History.

During the course of this project, the students will learn critical thinking, research and collaboration skills. They will learn how to plan, structure, research and write a historical research study. As part of this process they will learn about archives, preservation and digitisation and work together to transcribe important historical documents from DCU Library’s holdings. DCU Library has been publishing its collections with the Digital Repository of Ireland since 2021 and also aggregating these collections so they are discoverable on Europeana. Resources for each class will be provided in an online guide that can be accessed as an open educational resource for students completing their Leaving Certificate History Research Study Report (RSR).