Events
NUI Galway Library and The Moore Institute:
Sources and Voices: Archives, Writing, and the Irish Diaspora
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Press Release from the Digital Repository of Ireland
Launch of Archiving Reproductive Health Pilot Collections
The Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI) is delighted to announce the launch of a series of pilot collections for the Archiving Reproductive Health project, in an online event on International Women’s Day 2022.
'Digital Preservation of Reproductive Health Resources: Archiving the 8th' (Archiving Reproductive Health) is a project funded by the Wellcome Trust and carried out by the DRI to preserve and publish digital materials relating to campaigns for reproductive justice in Ireland, especially during the campaign to repeal the Eighth Amendment in 2018.
Working with key stakeholders including the Abortion Rights Campaign, Together for Yes, Terminations for Medical Reasons, Coalition to Repeal the Eighth, and many others, ARH has gathered and preserved a selection of digital objects and research data, including social media, that tells part of the story of this historic campaign.
These collections will be launched online on International Women’s Day, 8 March 2022, at 12:00 pm. All are welcome to attend and registration is free.
The preservation and publication of these collections add significantly to our understanding of women's rights movements and access to reproductive healthcare in Ireland. Not only does the project allow for the preservation of fragile digital content, but it also makes way for further research developments in this field.
Material from the collections includes a series of photographs, videos, and design assets from three of the Abortion Rights Campaign’s Marches for Choice.
Also included are design assets and press materials from Together for Yes, the national campaign to repeal the Eighth, as well as from the Coalition to Repeal the Eighth and the activist group Terminations for Medical Reasons.
Examples of this material can be seen on DRI's website at https://www.dri.ie/launch-
The project is also working on the exciting and challenging world of social media preservation. Material from the popular Facebook page ‘In Her Shoes’ will be available as part of the pilot collections. This collection will be added to over the course of the project, and ARH invites members of the public who contributed stories to In Her Shoes to find out more about the collection at iqda@mu.ie.
Research data in the form of oral history interviews with medics, campaigners, and women’s rights activists in Ireland will also be launched, provided by Re(al) Productive Justice Project: Gender and Disabilities, the Irish Qualitative Data Archive and a number of individual researchers.
Photographs of referendum campaign posters in Irish city streets in 2018 by researcher Louis Strange round out this exciting series of collections.
ARH warmly welcomes stakeholders, campaigners, and members of the public to attend this launch. A brief guided tour of these important collections will be presented by Digital Archivist and Coordinator Clare Lanigan. Once launched, the collections will be available for viewing and research on repository.dri.ie.
The National Archives
Presented by the National Archives in partnership with the Royal Irish Academy, the National Library of Ireland and the Office of Public Works, with records from the collections of the Military Archives, Dublin and University College Dublin Archives. The Anglo-Irish Treaty is one of the most significant historical documents held by the National Archives. Using it as a centrepiece, the National Archives will present an exhibition that marks its role as the official repository of the records of the State, one hundred years since its formation. The Treaty, 1921: Records from the Archives opens up significant historical records, official documents and private papers for the first time in the history of the State, including the first public presentation of the Treaty document.
Using contemporary reportage, images and footage, The Treaty, 1921: Records from the Archives locates the Treaty negotiations in the political context of the Irish revolution and a world turned upside down by the First World War. Beginning with the exploratory talks between Éamon de Valera, President of Dáil Éireann, and British Prime Minister David Lloyd George during the summer of 1921, it details the work of the Irish plenipotentiaries and their secretariat, by presenting the documentary record that they left behind.
The exhibition also chronicles day-to-day life in London for the men and women who made up the Irish delegation, from parties attended, dinners hosted and appearances at theatre and gala performances, to the tense final days and hours leading to the signing of the Treaty just after 2am on 6 December 1921. Finally, it documents the delegation’s return to Dublin, and the Dáil Éireann cabinet meeting that pointed to the split in the independence movement that emerged over the terms of the Treaty, and the divisions that would lead to civil war.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a public engagement programme designed to encourage historical enquiry and promote the widest possible interest in exploring and understanding the impact and legacy of the events that occurred during the revolutionary period, including global reactions and the experience of women.
For more information and to book tickets, please see here.
The National Library
Looking Back, Moving Forward: sharing our digital preservation journeys
Thursday 4th November, 10am
By sharing digital preservation journeys we can learn from the experience of others and reflect on our own digital preservation progress. This year the World Digital Preservation Day theme is ’Breaking Down Barriers’. It is a time to share and discuss the challenges we have faced, opportunities we have embraced and progress we have made. Hearing about the work of others gives us all an opportunity to make digital preservation and community activities understandable, relatable and accessible to all.
The National Library of Ireland is using the opportunity of World Digital Preservation Day on the 4th of November, in an online morning event, to bring together members of the broader Irish library, archive and digital preservation community and discuss some of these challenges and opportunities in the context of the ongoing need to consider long term digital preservation.
This online event is aimed at archivists, librarians and others thinking about or working with digital content whether born digital or the outputs of digitisation. All are very welcome, but booking is essential. This event is with live captioning.
Register here: https://nli.ticketsolve.com/
The National Archives Lecture Series
‘The Irish Revolution and the making of a new world order: what the archives tell us’
Tuesday 23rd November, 6pm
Speakers: Dr Linda Connolly (Professor of Sociology, Maynooth University), Dr Brian Hanley (Assistant Professor in Twentieth Century Irish History, Trinity College Dublin) and Dr Fearghal McGarry (Professor in Modern Irish History, School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics, Queen's University, Belfast). Moderator: Dr Patrick Geoghegan (Professor in Modern History, Trinity College Dublin)
The 20th century was defined by the decline of empire and the emergence of new nations and social and political movements founded on principles of democracy, equality and self-government. Some of the questions arising from this seismic shift in global politics and society will ask what the historical records tell us about the way events occurring in Ireland spoke to the wider dynamics of change that were sweeping the world, from revolutionary struggles to decolonisation and women's suffrage. Also, how did Ireland's new political leadership use news and information to mobilise its population and project Ireland to a global public in the brave new world of mass media?
This roundtable will bring together a distinguished group of academics to discuss what archival records can tell us about the ideas of the men and women who built the Irish nation and how they were shaped by and within the new world that was emerging after the First World War and the Irish revolution
To register, and for more information, click here.
The National Archives Lecture Series
The National Archives is delighted to announce ‘The Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations under the magnifying glass with Michael Portillo in conversation with Professor Marie Coleman', the second event in our commemorative lecture series for autumn–winter 2021.
The talk will be streamed live from the Royal Irish Academy on Dawson Street, Dublin at 6pm on Thursday 28 October next and will see Michael Portillo (broadcaster and former British cabinet minister) discuss with Professor Marie Coleman (Professor in Modern Irish History, Queen's University, Belfast) the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations held in London from 11 October–6 December 1921.
The speakers will debate what was at stake for both delegations and their respective governments and will consider the wider implications the Treaty had, not just for future Anglo-Irish relations but also for Britain’s allies and empire.
DRI Community Archive Scheme
The DRI Community Archive Scheme is currently open for applications. This award offers free DRI membership and digital preservation training and support to community groups or organisations operating on no or low funding. We welcome and encourage applications from groups that meet the eligibility criteria described in our DRI Community Archive Scheme Application Form available on link below.
Further details about the award and application process can be viewed here.
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DRI Webinar: The EU Copyright Directive
Location: Online, Thursday 4th November, 10am-12pm (IST)
The Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI) invites you to join us for a webinar that will introduce the EU Copyright Directive, led by Ariadna Matas of the Europeana Foundation. We will be joined by Gyta Berasneviciute of the European Union Intellectual Property Office.* This webinar is geared towards those working in the diverse areas represented by DRI’s members, in cultural heritage, the humanities, and the social sciences.
Image: Fáilte Ireland. Book stalls, Aston Quay, Dublin City, County Dublin, Digital Repository of Ireland [Distributor], Dublin City Library and Archive [Depositing Institution], https://doi.org/10.7486/DRI.cn700k95g
#ArchivistAppraiseThyself
ARA Ireland's new Archivist Wellness Campaign, October 2021
You’ve all heard of the expression Physician Heal Thyself? Well now we have Archivist Appraise Thyself! ARA Ireland are running a new month long campaign in October encouraging our members to take stock of their mental health, and to start learning new habits to improve it, while also recognising the pitfalls of our profession which may lead to strain on our well being.
Why now? ARA Ireland have for some time been aware of and concerned about the pressures faced by our members. In the normal course of our work we face many challenges including physical and sometimes emotional isolation, lack of understanding and support of our work from colleagues, external pressure to provide access to closed records, internal pressure to destroy/close records we feel should be open, pressure to do our jobs with limited resources, and pressure to be Jacks and Jills of all trades. Over the course of the last 18 months, we as a profession have faced additional pressures to upskill and pivot, to provide more services online, to do less with more, and in some cases have either had to cover for colleagues who have lost their jobs, or have lost jobs ourselves. Our personal lives have also been under strain, with many facing additional challenges of caring for family members, working from home in unsuitable conditions while juggling school education for young ones, and in some tragic cases dealing with the loss of loved ones which have either been caused or exacerbated by the ongoing pandemic, and related restrictions.
As a result, ARA Ireland have launched a new campaign for the month of October, centered around World Mental Health Day (10th October). As part of this new campaign, we are delighted to bring you a presentation from the wonderful people at Heartfulness Ireland on Wednesday 6th of October, carefully customised to address the worries, stresses and strains of members in our profession. This 45 minute presentation on self-compassion will look at how we manage stress, the evolution of us as a species, and how this has led to us sabotaging our mental health. It will be followed by a 15 minute meditation session. We hope as many of you as possible attend.
You can register here. (Please register by Tuesday 5th October, 7pm. A Zoom link for the event will then be sent to all attendees.)
Throughout the month we will also be posting short audio/video clips. The posts will include information on the benefits of meditation in terms of physiological and emotional benefits and will cover Heartfulness Relaxation, Heartfulness Meditation and Heartfulness Rejuvenation. More information on this event and on the month long campaign #ArchivistAppraiseThyself will be coming soon.
In the meantime, mind yourselves, tabhairigí aire and we hope to see you online very soon.
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As part of their contribution to the Decade of Centenaries and based on their own holdings, the National Archives of Ireland (NAI) will be holding a series of Treaty-related monthly talks. The first will take place on 23 September next and will be a joint event co-hosted with the National Library in Kildare Street, under the umbrella of the Dublin Festival of History. 'Bring me into the spotlight of a London conference: Michael Collins from Truce to Treaty' is a lecture by Dr Anne Dolan and Dr William Murphy, and moderated by David McCullagh.
For more information on this online talk see here.
More information on the NAI's Autumn/Winter series and on their major Anglo-Irish Treaty exhibition opening on 6 December next in Dublin Castle to follow.
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#ArchiveDiaspora - 01 July 2021
A new social media campaign celebrating the Irish people, both new and old, both famous and forgotten, who have either left or come to these shores seeking a new life.
The Archives and Records Association, Ireland are delighted to announce a new social media campaign to take place annually on the 1st July, beginning this year. Based on the theme of diaspora, and using the campaign hashtag #ArchiveDiaspora, individuals and institutions across Ireland and around the world are invited to share material from their archives which relate to Irish people both famous and forgotten, who left these shores for a life abroad, as well as material relating to those who have chosen to make Ireland their home.
Celebrate the wonderful, the whacky, the brave, and the banal, the intrepid explorer, and the wayfaring stranger!
The campaign aims to encourage the public to access and explore collections, while also highlighting the rich material in archives all across Ireland and Internationally. It also hopes to raise awareness of the wealth and variety of material that exists within the community at large, and the importance of ensuring it is collected and preserved for future generations.
Participation is open to all, with an emphasis on archives, both personal and public, and interested parties may get in touch by contacting ARA Ireland Communications and Campaigns Officer, Niamh Ní Charra.
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28th January 2021
In conjunction with the Tower Museum Derry-Londonderry
An online event looking at the important role played by archives in understanding the events leading to the creation of Northern Ireland.
On Thursday 28th January 2021 at 7pm GMT, join former Head of Special Projects at the National Archives of Ireland, Catriona Crowe, in discussion with a specialist panel of experts. The panel will explore the importance of archives in informing our knowledge of the period surrounding the partition of Ireland.
The free online event is part of a programme of events in conjunction with the Tower Museum Derry-Londonderry's latest exhibition 'Dividing Ireland - The Origins, Impact and Legacy of Partition'. Catriona will be joined by Stephen Scarth, Head of Public Services at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI), Elizabeth McEvoy, archivist at the National Archives of Ireland, with special responsibility for education and outreach and Michael Keane, archivist for the Military Service Pensions Project at the Military Archives.
For more information and to register for free see here.
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2nd December 2020
Online talk: ‘Collecting in a Crisis: Rapid Response Web and Social Media Archiving’
DRI-NAI joint event: 19.00–20.00 GMT
The Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI) in collaboration with the National Archives,Ireland (NAI) will host an online webinar on rapid response web and social media archiving as part of their joint ongoing public lecture series on digital archiving.
Digital archivists have played an essential role on the front lines of the work to document the pandemic as it plays out online and their continuous collaborative efforts will ensure that records of the social, cultural and economic impact of this crisis will be preserved for future generations.
The two key seminar speakers are Nicola Bingham (Lead Curator for Web Archives at the British Library) and Valerie Love (Senior Digital Archivist at the Alexander Turnbull Library, a division of the National Library of New Zealand). The former will describe the work of the UK Web Archive in collecting websites that reflect the UK perspective of the COVID-19 pandemic while the latter will give an overview of the Library’s Digital Collecting and Legal Deposit teams’ efforts to collect and preserve public responses to the crisis across social media platforms.
The event will take place over Zoom Webinar. It will be recorded and live streamed to Facebook but audience members will not be visible in the recording.
Register for free here.
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Monday 30th November
Special Webinar: ‘Days Like This’ Reflections on President Clintons visit to Northern Ireland, 30th November 1995
PRONI, 3pm
The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) and ARK invite you to a special webinar to mark the 25th Anniversary of the historic visit of President Clinton to Northern Ireland in 1995. Register for free here.
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27th March 2020
Edmund Burke Theatre, Trinity College Dublin, 18:30-20:00 GMT
A Public Symposium on the Importance of Preserving our Archives for Future Generations
Archives are a window into the past. They are unique records which document the decisions and actions of individuals and organisations. Once lost, archives cannot be replaced.
Featuring
Mr Justice John Hedigan, Chair of the National Archives Advisory Council
Seán Carabini, Fórsa
Hazel Menton and Niamh McDonnell, Fórsa Archivist’s Branch
Anne Dolan, Dept of History, Trinity College Dublin
Fintan O’Toole, author and journalist
Moderated by
Catriona Crowe, archivist and broadcaster
This symposium and open forum will bring attention to Ireland’s abandoned archives which are currently at risk of being lost forever because they are not being properly acquired, preserved and made accessible by the state. These are the stories we can’t tell.
A 2019 report—‘National Archives: A Comparative Management Survey’—highlighted the deficiency in archive legislation in Ireland and the lack of staff and resources available to the National Archives to enable it to carry out its statutory functions of acquiring, preserving and providing access to public records created by the government.
Speakers will highlight the urgent need for a whole-of-government approach to records management to preserve the story of Ireland for generations to come.
Supported by
Fórsa
Archives & Records Association, Ireland
Information & Records Management Society, Ireland
Irish Association of Professional Historians
Irish Society for Archives
Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute
For more details and to register for the event please click here.
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5th December 2019
Digital Preservation for the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities Conference
The McClay Library, Queen’s University Belfast
The Digital Repository of Ireland and Queen's University Belfast are hosting the third DPASSH (Digital Preservation in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities) as a one-day symposium on 5 December 2019 in Belfast.
DPASSH is a response to the problem of digital preservation within the arts and social sciences domains. The theme of DPASSH 2019 is ‘Practical Approaches to Open Research in Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences’. The event will feature a keynote address entitled: ‘Future of open research and its impact on Humanities and Social Science’, by Martin Eve Professor of Literature, Technology and Publishing at Birkbeck; CEO at Open Library of Humanities.
Topics covered in the panels will include:
– Practical approaches to Open Research in Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
– Identifying what research data is in the domain of ASSH
– Collaborations between researchers and cultural heritage
– ‘FAIR-ifying’ your research data.
More details: http://dpassh.org/. Registration is €40 and includes lunch and refreshments. Please click here to register.
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1st October 2019:
This year, the Explore Your Archive campaign will run from 23rd November to 1st December.
Throughout the week archives across the country will open their doors to showcase their collections, to help the public discover a piece of Irish history and culture through tours, presentations and workshops.
For more information please consult the EYA Campaign page in the drop down menu.
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