Have you heard of the Archives & Records Association UK & Ireland? They have a website called Learn About Archives. Across the top of the page there are eight tabs.
The first tab is Home but the next tab is Archives Services and here you will find a directory of over 80 archive services. They say that shortly you will be able to download a PDF file and you can find a Google map to show you where the archives are located. Each week they highlight a particular archive.
In the directory you will find a map, contact information such as address, phone number, contact person and email and website addresses. You will find directions and hours of operation. There is usually a description of the records that are held at the archives.
You will find information on archives in all of the 32 counties of Ireland.
The next tab is Learn and here you have the choice of What are Archives?, Beginning Your Research, Visiting an Archives Service, Sources, Guidelines and Conservation. Click on any of these links to learn more.
Documents are next and here you will find topics such as: Guinness, Famine, Census, Photographs, Women, Politics, Letters & Diaries, Maps & Plans and Military. Click on any of these links and you will find digital examples of these resources.
News provides links to the news of the archives in Ireland, the Events tab promotes the exhibitions of various archives around the country and about us is self explanatory. The last tab is Links and here you can find links to all sorts of resources.
One of the links is to the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland Archive Collections.
There are four resource areas at the bottom of the page: Descriptive Guidelines, Documents, IAR (Irish Archives Resource) and Exhibitions. In previous posts I have written about the Irish Archives Resource so I won’t be looking at IAR in this post.
The Guidelines link takes you to a page which provides the Irish Guidelines for Archival Description and you can read the Archives and Records Association of Ireland’s newsletter.
The Documents link takes you to the same page as the Documents tab at the top of the home page.
The Exhibitions link takes you to Flickr and an assortment of photographs and digital images.
This website is a place to learn about some of the lesser known archives to be found in Ireland. It is also a place to keep up to date with new developments regarding Irish archives. If you are looking for a record that you can’t find in the usual places see if there is an archive that might hold that elusive item.
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