Press Release from the Digital Repository of Ireland

Launch of Archiving Reproductive Health Pilot Collections

Date: 8 March 2022Time: 12:00 – 12:45 pm GMTOnline: – register at https://www.dri.ie/launch-archiving-reproductive-health-pilot-collections-event

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-archiving-reproductive-health-pilot-collections-event

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 latest events in the Archive Sector calandar can be found listed here. For specific campaigns such as the Explore Your Archive launch week please consult the drop down menu.

The National Archives

The Treaty 1921 – Records from the ArchivesLocation: Dublin Castle Coach House GalleryMonday 7th December 2021- Sunday 27th March 2022

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 4^th 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/shows/1173617518/events