What a few days! Not only was I involved in a three-day whirl of celebrations for my husband's 60th birthday (three parties and not a genealogist in sight – bliss!), my Inbox has delivered a stream of support for my blogposts of Friday last in which I focussed on lifting the lid on some very objectionable behaviour within the Irish genealogy industry.
I'm a bit up to my ears with work and volunteer (genealogy) duties today, but I'll be returning to the positive emails I've received and to some new stories now circulating that support my view that the industry is severely tainted by bullying and unprofessional behaviour.
My Inbox also brought two negative emails. Just two. The first came from someone who works in partnership with Eneclann*. She said she did not recognise the nasty world I related in my blogpost and she described me as 'an outsider' (not sure what that's about). I'll reply to her in due course, but I'll be exploring some of her themes on this blog over the next few days, in any case.
And then there was an email from Deirdre Breen who is the legal director of Ancestor Network and is named as the wife of John Hamrock in the dedication to his book Tracing your Roscommon Ancestors, published by Flyleaf Press. She advised that I could be joined in any defamation action the company takes against Sean J Murphy.
Now, I haven't mentioned Ancestor Network before but since the company's legal director has done so, I'd better join the dots. John Hamrock, who I referred to in my 'Plagiarism: the GSI should respond to the claim' blogpost, is not only the ex-chairman of the Genealogical Society of Ireland, he is a director of Ancestor Network, the company that, in partnership with Eneclann, provides the genealogy service to the National Library of Ireland.
Anyway, moving on from the contents of my Inbox....
You might like to take a return visit to Sean J Murphy's Open Letter to the Genealogical Society of Ireland which he updated yesterday. He has uploaded the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG)'s Professional Review Committee's ruling in favour of his complaint against John Hamrock, which states that the latter's behaviour and activity was 'in violation of the Code of Ethics'.
UPDATE, June 2016: Eneclann has rebranded as the Irish Family History Centre and is still choosing to partner with Ancestor Network to provide genealogy services to the National Library.
