Ireland / Northern Ireland Record-keeping census announced

For some time now it has been obvious to our committee and many in the wider profession that one of the major challenges in advocating for our profession, in particular in the area of funding and resources, was the difficulty of quantifying the extent of the problem.While we all know resources are thin on the ground and archive professionals and services are overstretched, without concrete statistics and a starting reference point, it is extremely difficult to campaign for more resources.When we brought the idea of an island-wide survey to ARA central, they embraced the idea, and have decided to begin conducting such surveys across all regions and jurisdictions, with ARA Ireland’s survey being the pilot.

Following much collaborative work between myself and Chris Sheridan, with invaluable input from the ARA Committee, and support from ARA central, we are now ready to go live! This is the first time a survey of this nature has been carried out and it will give us invaluable insight into the ARM sector on this island. We want this shared everywhere and with everyone. This is for those who are individual members of ARA, those who are covered by their institution’s membership, and those that aren’t members at all, or indeed of any ARM organisation. I would ask you all to fill it out. The more that do, the more accurate a picture we will get. The deadline is the 6th of December.

Please complete the census and share widely. 
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Funding Announcement

In November the Minister of State for Nature, Heritage and Electoral Reform, Malcolm Noonan TD, announced that almost €1m in funding is being made available in 2025 for the recruitment of new heritage professionals aimed at strengthening the protection of heritage assets across the country. It is anticipated that by the end of 2026 a full complement of local authority archivists, architectural conservation officers and archaeologists will be in place, ensuring comprehensive nationwide coverage of crucial heritage protection functions for the future. Our Chair, Niamh Ní Charra, issued the following response:

As Chair of ARA Ireland, I welcome the news from Minister Malcolm Noonan that archivists and other heritage professionals are to be recruited to fill vacancies across our local authorities, as part of a major expansion of the Heritage Council’s programme, and I commend the Heritage Council’s ongoing work in this area. It is vital that promises to ensure a full complement of local authority archivists are employed by December, 2026, and proper supports and resources in place for all local authority archivists are kept, to ensure at-risk archives and local heritage are protected and increased public services can be provided.

It has taken over 2 decades already for 2/3rds of local authorities to hire archivists, following legislation in 2001. Many of these have insufficient supports to carry out their work, many archive collections are housed in unsuitable locations and there is an alarming lack of recognition and acknowledgement for the importance of the archivist’s vital work. We encourage all local authorities to embrace this expanded scheme, and the recognition given by Minister Noonan of the importance of our archival collections nationwide, and of hiring experts to protect and preserve this rich heritage.