Explore Your Archive 2023
Explore Your Archive 2023 focus week will run from Saturday 25th November to Sunday 3rd December.
Explore Your Archive is an annual campaign that showcases the best of archives and archive services in Ireland and the UK. Please read on for more about EYA and the daily themes, and check back soon for updates on our EYA ambassador for 2023/4, ARA Ireland’s launch of the focus week on the 23rd November, and all the events as they come in.
ARA Ireland’s Explore Your Archive Ambassador 2023/4
We are thrilled to announce that ARA Ireland’s Explore Your Archive ambassador for 2023/2024 is journalist, author and Kerry native Clodagh Finn. Clodagh is author of ‘Through Her Eyes: a history of Ireland in 21 women’ and ‘A Time to Risk All’ (Gill Books), a biography of Mary Elmes, the ‘Irish Oskar Schindler’. Last year, she collaborated with the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Alison Gilliland, to write ‘Her Keys to the City’, which highlights the overlooked contributions of 80 women. She writes ‘An Irishwoman’s Diary’ in the Irish Examiner and has worked as a sub-editor and feature writer for several newspapers. She has also worked as a freelance writer and editor in Paris. She has a degree in French and Archaeology from UCD and is particularly interested in writing about overlooked women from history.
ARA Ireland EYA Launch
We are also delighted to announce that our launch will take place at Irish Traditional Music Archive, 75 Merrion Square, Dublin 2. We are delighted that our ambassador Clodagh Finn will be joining us on the evening.
In addition, Adam Girard, digital archivist at the ITMA, will introduce attendees to the current and exciting work taking place at ITMA. This work focuses on two large-scale projects aimed at increasing ITMA’s in-house digitisation capacity. Topics covered will include the challenges of designing a digitisation studio for early audio formats, the design of preservation-grade digital storage infrastructure to keep newly digitised materials safe, as well as ongoing projects designed to make much of this material available to the public. The launch is free to attend but places are limited so please register here.
EYA 2023/24 Daily Themes
The campaign aims to open up the phenomenal archival collections held by organisations – public and private – whatever their size and scale, and wherever they are.
Throughout the week archives across the country will showcase their collections online, to help the public discover a piece of Irish history and culture. We will be updating the EYA and Featured pages as submissions come in, so please make sure to check back regularly. Submissions can be made directly to the Campaigns and Communications officer Niamh Ní Charra at niamhnicharra@gmail.com.
For ARA Ireland’s customisable EYA poster please click here, and for our EYA logo please click here.
EYA 2023 Events
Saturday 4th November
University of Galway
Launch of the Conradh na Gaeilge Digital Collection at Oireachtas na Gaeilge
University of Galway has unveiled a milestone for its Archives and Special Collections with the unveiling of about 60,000 digitised images from the Conradh na Gaeilge archive. Following an 18-month digitisation project, the collection has been made openly available online, offering a window to momentous episodes in Irish history and the work, campaigning and activism of Conradh. Event Link
Wednesday 8th November – Thursday 21st December
Royal Irish Academy (RIA)
Exhibition: The Great Industrial Exhibition of 1853
In 1853 the Royal Irish Academy contributed artefacts to one of the largest ever international events of the nineteenth-century – the Great Industrial Exhibition – which took place from 12 May until the 31st of October 1853 on the grounds of Leinster House, the headquarters of the Royal Dublin Society. This year marks 170 years since the exhibition, which welcomed over a million visitors to see highlights of Irish industry and craft. A substantial number of objects from the Royal Irish Academy Museum (now held in the National Museum of Ireland) were exhibited as part of the Great Industrial Exhibition including the twelfth century Cross of Cong, one of the greatest examples of Irish art, and the Tara Brooch. RIA worked with colleagues from the RDS Library & Archive on an exhibition to tell the story of the Great Industrial Exhibition which will be on display in the Meeting Room of the Royal Irish Academy in November and December. Event Link
Monday 20th November
National Archives of Ireland
Exhibition “On An Equal Footing – Ireland at the League of Nations”, UNHQ, New York
In what is the final flagship event for the Irish Government’s Decade of Centenaries 2012-2023 programme, a major exhibition which marks the first time Ireland was recognised as a new nation on the world stage at the UN Headquarters in New York goes on display. Event link
Tuesday 21st November onwards
Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI)
PRONI Libraries Tour – various locations
PRONI is taking some of its most interesting records on the road, visiting Derry Central Library on 21st November and Enniskillen Library on 14th December, with further visits, including to Lurgan Library, planned for the New Year. The initiative, which has been organised in partnership with Libraries NI, will see historical documents specific to the region put on display at each local library.
PRONI staff will be available on the day to help visitors uncover details of their family tree, delve into the history of the local area, and answer questions about the vast array of records held by the PRONI.
No booking required.
Thursday 23rd November
Military Archives
Book launch and second release of MSPC material
Launch of the Military Service Pensions Project’s third and latest publication, A Very Hard Struggle – Lives in the Military Service Pensions Collection. The book, edited by Anne Dolan and Catriona Crowe will be launched by Tánaiste and Minister for Defence, Micheál Martin.
Military Service Pensions Project 15th release of pension files – some 2200 records relating to 863 individuals will enter the public domain. This is the second release of MSPC material this year. Event Link
Tuesday 28th November
National Library of Ireland
Online talk – Getting Started with Family History Research
This short introductory talk is aimed at anyone starting out their family history research . The talk will provide an overview of the National Library of Ireland’s family history service, and how to use the Library’s website to research your family history. It will focus on the tools available including how to download family history worksheets you can use to build your family tree. The talk will conclude with an introduction to the Library’s Catholic parish registers website and how to browse baptism, marriage and death records online. Event Link
Thursday 30th November
Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI)
The East Donegal Border Petition and the Derry-Donegal Milk War, 1934-8
PRONI is delighted to invite you to a presentation by Dr Samuel Beckton to mark the launch of his book, ‘The East Donegal Border Petition and the Derry-Donegal Milk War, 1934-8’.
In November 1934, 7,368 Protestants in east Donegal signed a Unionist petition to the British and Northern Irish governments requesting to transfer their region to Northern Ireland. This was a reaction to policies made in the Irish Free State by Fianna Fáil during the 1930s that resulted in the Economic War. News of this event spread to numerous newspapers across the British and Irish Isles, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Southern Rhodesia through Irish diasporas across the British empire. This was an exceptional event of southern Unionism in post-partition Ireland, displaying an element of defiance in their development of living in the Irish Free State. The work analyses the roots of the petition and those who organised the document. What were the terms of the petition? What did the petition manage to achieve and fail to resolve? How did it lead to a Derry–Donegal Milk War, which lasted three years? Event link
The Library Association of Ireland Rare Books and LAI Genealogy & Local Studies Groups
Seminar – “If you want to understand today you have to search yesterday”, Chester Beatty
The Library Association of Ireland Rare Books and the LAI Genealogy and Local Studies Groups look forward to welcoming you to this joint seminar “If you want to understand today you have to search yesterday: genealogical & local studies materials in Irish Special Collections & Archives.”
Advance registration is required for this event which will be held at Chester Beatty in Dublin. Event Link
Thursday 30th November – Friday 1st December
Trinity College Dublin
The Many Lives of Medieval Manuscripts Symposium
The Many Lives of Medieval Manuscripts Symposium – led by the Manuscripts & Archives section of Trinity College Library to showcase a recent haul of digitised treasures from the medieval collection. Event Link
Friday 1st December
Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI)
Getting Started Workshop – Using Online Resources
Are you thinking of starting your family history, or local history research? This workshop has been designed to help you get started online from the comfort of your own home through PRONI’s own online services and other online resources. It is also a chance for you to ask your questions directly to PRONI staff!
This workshop will be delivered online via Zoom, links will be issued one hour in advance.
Tuesday 5th December
Royal College of Physicians of Ireland(RCPI)
Launch of “The Diaries of Kathleen Lynn: A Life Revealed Through Personal Writing”, Harriett Wheelock, Dr Mary McAuliffe
The diaries of Dr Kathleen Lynn, 1916-1955, cover her involvement in the 1916 Rising, the War of Independence, the Civil War, and the formative three and a half decades of the Irish Free State. They demonstrate the revolutionary, socialist and feminist fervour of a radical revolutionary woman, what motivated her and the work she did for women, workers, and Ireland. The diaries, held in the archives of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI), reveal the often-difficult road that radical political women forged in the new Irish Free State, which viewed women through the constraining lens of marriage, motherhood, and domesticity.
Central to the diaries is Lynn’s vital work in St Ultan’s Hospital for Sick Infants which she co-founded in 1919. Her diaries demonstrate vividly the number of women who led advances in medical care in the first decades of the State alongside Lynn. The diaries also record her family and personal relationships, especially her lifelong relationship with fellow suffragist, revolutionary and social campaigner, Madeline ffrench-Mullen.
More info here.
Thursday 7th December
Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI)
An Evening of Carols and Readings from the Archives
Join us at PRONI for an evening of music, history and celebration! Belfast-based chamber choir, Cantiunculae, will be performing Christmas carols interspersed with nine readings from festive PRONI documents, including some which have been selected as part of PRONI’s 100 Treasures to celebrate our centenary.
Friday 8th – Sunday 17th December
Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA)
Drawing From The Well Concert Tour
ITMA presents an evening of traditional music, song and dance in the company of four of Ireland’s leading contemporary traditional artists. These artists have engaged with ITMA’s flagship series Drawing from the Well, an initiative which connects artists with archival materials to inspire new art. Event Link
Thursday 14th December
Royal Irish Academy (RIA)
Seminar Her-ALD: Her Archives, Literature, Documents
This one-day seminar aims to enhance the visibility of Irish women scientists, scholars, authors and others by bringing together archival practitioners, librarians, historians and other stakeholders to discover, discuss and disseminate women’s archival collections. The seminar, HER-ald: Her archives, literature, documents, will take place in the Royal Irish Academy on Thursday 14 December 2023. This date also marks the 105th anniversary of Irish women over the age of 30 exercising their right to vote in a general election for the first time. This event is kindly supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media and Mná 100.
ARA Ireland’s Communications and Campaigns Officer Niamh Ní Charra and EYA ambassador for 2023/24 Clodagh Finn. Photo (c) Marc O’Sullivan and taken at the RIA