I had a word this afternoon with the Specials Collections team at NUI Galway' James Hardiman Library about the Connacht and Munster Landed Estates Database, which has been offline for four months since the University's IT system was attacked. See my original blogpost on this topic here.
Sadly, there is no good news to report. The landedestates.ie database is still offline and will remain so for some time. Realising an attack was being attempted back in September, the University's IT department decided to take all its systems and material down rather than have it lost or damaged. This means the techies are having to build back all of its systems from scratch – a huge and time-consuming operation.
The one-off databases dedicated to the Library's special archival collections are among those that have not yet been restored and will only gradually make their way to the front of the queue. The LandedEstates database has its own peculiarity in that it is actually hosted by the Moore Institute rather than by the Library directly. Let's hope this one-step-removed connection won't delay its return to live status.
If I had to guess, and it is only a guess, I'd be surprised (and delighted) if the database was operational again during the current academic year.
UPDATE 11 February: Please see my blogpost 'Workaround to view Connacht & Munster Landed Estates database'.
8 April 2022: The site is back up and running! See blogpost.
