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The long-term hope is that all Irish archives will be fully accessible online PA Images/Arturo Mari

Ireland's archive collections go online

History-sleuths, amateur and professional, are invited to search through wide collection of personal and State archives of cultural, sporting, political and social documents.

AMATEUR HISTORIANS REJOICE: Ireland’s archive collections have found a new central home online.

The website www.iar.ie, launched today, allows the public to search a wide range of Irish archives online. Some of the collections featured include the Irish Film Archive, the Guinness family archives, archives from UCC’s Boole Library and a large number of city and county council archives.

Brian McGee, archivist at the Cork City and County Archives, told TheJournal.ie that the Irish Archives Resource site links to wherever these archives are digitised and searchable online. However, it also carries detailed descriptions of what is in every archive listed and where it can be accessed physically, if the collection is not online. He said:

For now, it is primarily a descriptive site but we see it as the first step on the ladder to digitising entire collections. For example, we have one collection that is 175 boxes’ worth of documents and it has not been possible to put them all up as yet.

State-funded archiving in Ireland is a relatively recent phenomenon, only being properly established in the last 30 to 40 years. However, the IAR website brings together a large number of collections from around the country, preserved by a range of organisations.

It includes records from current and defunct government and local government agencies, personal contributions, estate records, clubs, societies, trade unions, religious, cultural, sporting and political organisations.

One personal archive included is that of Nancy McCarthy, a member of the Cork arts scene who had a romantic relationship with Frank O’Connor when they both worked with the Cork Drama League and later, a lifelong friendship. Her archive, donated to UCC Library by O’Connor’s wife Harriet O’Donovan-Sheehy, who became executor of McCarthy’s estate, contains fascinating personal correspondence between McCarthy and a host of luminaries such as actors Cyril Cusack and Micheál Mac Liammóir, editor of the New Yorker William Maxwell and sculptor Seamus Murphy.

The range of audio, video, written and aural testimony ranges from records of traditional trades, crafts and traditions that were practised in Ireland around 1850 to more contemporary material. Film buffs, for example, will be interested in production material harvested from Jim Sheridan’s Hell’s Kitchen International Ltd production company.

The company is still going but some materials from films such as My Left Foot, The Field, Into the West and The Boxer were given to the Irish Film Archive following the closure of Hell’s Kitchen’s Dublin office in 2009.

Brian McGee says one of his personal favourite archives referenced on the site is a recent collection of deeds on properties in Cork city dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries. These deeds were found lying in a skip in the Netherlands.

Geneaologists will also find much helpful material can be accessed through the site’s guidance. McGee says:

We would have lots from local government archives, for example documents from the workhouses’ board of guardians. The important thing about the site is that every collection on it is accessible and available to the public. The long-term hope is that it will one day all be digitised, and some archives are going in that direction already. Limerick city archives have been digitising a lot of their material recently.

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    Mute Joan Needham
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    Feb 10th 2016, 10:49 PM

    I let my 8yr old son take a day off school last year to spend it watching silage being cut. When I asked him what he was going to tell his teacher the next day, he told me he would tell him he spent the day doing work experience…I couldnt argue with that! I had to take the day off work as a paid holiday to sit with him watching the tractors going by. It was a great memory day for him and me.

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    Mute Paul Somers
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    Feb 11th 2016, 12:11 AM

    Next time approach a farmer, fairly sure he will let you help, farmers go unnoticed by so many.

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    Mute Matt Donovan
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    Feb 10th 2016, 10:38 PM

    That’s the kind of Dad I want to be with my daughter.

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    Mute Papasmurf
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    Feb 10th 2016, 10:42 PM

    It would be really funny if it was convent with a mother superior type reading it.

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    Mute Papasmurf
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    Feb 10th 2016, 10:43 PM

    Matt, if it was Ireland the kid wouldn’t have made it in at all as they would have all headed back to the residents bar in the hotel for a tipple afterwards.

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    Mute Anne O'Hara
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    Feb 10th 2016, 10:39 PM

    The Boss does a show that’s worth the money and more. Fair play to Dad :-)

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    Mute tmwtbc
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    Feb 10th 2016, 10:48 PM

    Friend of mine, not a fan until then, went to see him in Dublin around 2010 (open to correction). Met him in a bar for a few pints afterwards and he was absolutely blown away.

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    Mute nf
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    Feb 10th 2016, 10:36 PM

    I wanna be that dad

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    Mute Johnneary
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    Feb 10th 2016, 11:39 PM

    Bruce Shillingsteal.
    The Caviar Denim Whingebag.

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    Mute Jamie McCormack
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    Feb 10th 2016, 10:48 PM

    Been lucky enough to see the Boss play live, no-one does a show like him. Puts his heart and soul into every classic and is coolness personified. Isabelle will carry that buzz forever. Cool Dad.

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    Mute Papasmurf
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    Feb 10th 2016, 10:52 PM

    Willie Nelson is known to keep going too at gigs.

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    Mute Colette Kearns
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    Feb 10th 2016, 11:35 PM

    I gave my son the day off after going to see u2 because he called me to ask could he go on to the after party, first told him he would have to go in to school in the morning, then called him back 5 mins later to let him know he didn’t! Thease are special memories for them, allow them to enjoy them. As they say you only live once!! :-)

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    Mute margaret donohoe
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    Feb 10th 2016, 10:47 PM

    Amazing dad fair play to him.

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    Mute Lad
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    Feb 10th 2016, 10:41 PM

    Letter to work sorted..

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    Mute Tom
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    Feb 10th 2016, 11:36 PM

    Smacks of over sharing, it would be nice if it was their own private experience rather than him claiming it publicly.

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    Mute The Guru
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    Feb 11th 2016, 2:03 AM

    They’re American. They have no concept of over sharing.

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    Mute Colette Kearns
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    Feb 11th 2016, 1:31 AM

    Agh Benny & Tom would you both lighten up! This is about a father & daughter having a great evening out & his daughter having/making a memory that will stay with her all her life! X

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    Mute Jimmy Dunphy
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    Feb 11th 2016, 12:02 AM

    There’s going to be a whole lot of 12 year olds at the next Bruce Springsteen concerts

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    Mute gerry meagher
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    Feb 11th 2016, 1:45 AM

    Mine won’t go ‘dad rock’ ffs

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    Mute Benny Dorm
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    Feb 10th 2016, 10:56 PM

    Nothing spectacular.

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    Mute gerry meagher
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    Feb 10th 2016, 11:11 PM

    Greatest live act prices are a bit steep though although all acts seem to charge more here than rest of Europe citing extra costs logistics etc

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    Mute alpha_chaarlie
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    Feb 11th 2016, 10:18 AM

    Bruce Springsteen is a Langer

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    Mute Derek McEvoy
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    Feb 11th 2016, 8:09 AM

    Thats class, the same man didnt even know about Brian Healys stag in Manchester next weekend. Strange or what. Imagine he knew about the water charges

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