The first fruits of a digitisation project that's been supported by public donations has gone online at a new dedicated website: TipperaryStudies.ie.
Primary source material - most of it consisting of C19th Rate Books for the Poor Law Unions of Cashel, Nenagh and Thurles - is now available, free of charge, in a series of downloadable pdfs. So, too, are Irish Tourist Association Reports on the county's parishes dating from the first half of the 1940s, and a number of miscellaneous items.
The Rate Books cover various dates from the 1840s to the late 1870s. Librarian Mary Guinan Darmody told Irish Genealogy News that the Rate Books now available from the website cover only a small portion of what is held by the Archive. "At this stage, we've chosen to digitise a selection of volumes to give a good spread of material produced between Griffiths Valuation and the 1901 Census. There's a lot more to follow and my colleagues John O'Gorman and Dr Pat Bracken will be continuing to digitise material and uploading it to the new website at regular intervals."
Among the selection now available for download is a number of Burial Rate Books from the Poor Law Union of Nenagh. As far as I'm aware, Burial Rate Books related to obligations on local ratepayers for an additional charge to fund the interment of those who died in the workhouse.
You can read the library's report of the new website's launch here.