Black '47: a full day conference at the Irish Workhouse Centre

Marking its 175th anniversary, the Irish Workhouse Centre in Portumna, County Galway is hosting its first of this year's annual conferences – Black '47 – on Saturday 21 May.

It's a full 9–5 affair, with a top-notch line-up of speakers, and comes with tea/coffee in the morning to set you up for the learning and discussions that follow, and lunch to keep the motors running.

Here's an overview of the programme:

• 9am – 10am Registration / Tea/coffee and scones
• 10am Official welcome
• 10.30am Sending back Ireland’s Paupers: The repatriation of the Irish from Britain during the Great Hunger, with Dr Gerard Moran
• 11.15am Tea/Coffee
• 11.30am Patient Endurance: The Great Famine in Connemara, with Kathleen Villiers-Tuthill
• 12.15pm ‘We won’t allow one grain of corn to leave the country’: Protest and resistance, 1846-’47, with Dr John Cunningham
• 1pm-2pm Lunch
• 2pm The Famine Irish in Toledo, Ohio: An Exploration of ‘Mutative Ethnicity’, with Dr Regina Donlon
• 2.45pm Done to Death: The human skeletal Evidence of the Great Famine, with Dr Linda Lynch
• 3.30pm Oral Accounts of Disease and Mortality in the Great Famine, with Dr Críostóir Mac Cárthaigh
• 4.15pm – 5pm Open Panel

For fuller details of the speakers and their topics, download the conference brochure by clicking the image above.

The conference will be held at the Irish Workhouse Centre and costs €25 per delegate. It is part-funded by the Heritage Office, Galway County Council and supported by the Heritage Council and Galway Rural Development.

Latest records added to RootsIreland are from County Westmeath

The Dún na Sí Heritage Centre has uploaded 3,600 new burial and marriage records to its County Westmeath database on RootsIreland.ie. The new records are split across two collections, as follows:

Burials

• Clonfad & Fransciscan Abbey – 483 records
• Portshanaghan Churchyard – 23 records
• Ballyloughloe Churchyard – 40 records
• Bunowen – 7 records
• Killua – 19 records
• St Johns Churchyard Clonmellon – 32 records
• Castletown Geoghegan – 40 records
• Clonarney – 105 records
• Lacken – 97 records
• Knockmant – 12 records
• Scarden – 25 records
• Kilcolumb – 139 records
• Clonlost – 26 records
• Griffinstown – 18 records
• Miscellaneous – 1913 records

Marriages

• Mountnugent RC Marriages – 227 additional records

You can see a full breakdown of the Westmeath record collections here. 

NAI Reader's Tickets: optional online application system launched

The National Archives of Ireland has introduced an online application system for Reader's Tickets. The application process is straightforward and all supporting documentation — photo ID and proof of address — can be uploaded directly from your computer device.

While the application can now be made online, the Reader’s Ticket will not be issued online or by post. It will be issued only when you next attend the NAI in Bishop Street in person. It cannot be collected by a third party.

The benefit of the online application will be clear to those researchers living abroad as they can submit their application well In advance of their trip and won't have to remember to bring their utility bills etc with them.

The non-online application process is still available.

You can find out more on the NAI's website.

Ancestry adds two indexes of obituaries and marriages from Ireland

Ancestry has added two new collections of records of potential use to Irish and British genealogists.

They are:

UK and Ireland, Newspapers.com Obituary Index, 1800s-current. This is an index of obituaries published in the Newspapers.com database. It holds only basic details. You need a Newspapers.com subscription to view the full published obituary. There are 40,971 entries from newspapers published in Antrim (21,363) and Dublin (19,608).

All UK and Ireland, Newspapers.com Marriage Index, 1800s-current Results. This is an index of marriage announcements published in the Newspapers.com database. It holds only basic details. You need a Newspapers.com subscription to view the full published announcement. The index holds 18,460 entries from newspapers published in Ireland, 7,414 published in Antrim titles, 11,046 in Dublin titles.

April (headstones) additions to Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives

A sizeable bundle of headstones photos and transcribed inscriptions were added to Ireland Genenealogy Projects Archives last month, more than 300 of them from Midleton's Holy Rosary cemetery alone (and there's 900 more from the same burial ground still in the pipe!).

Holy Rosary Cemetery, Midleton County Cork.
Photo courtesy of Angela Gallagher and IGP Archives.
Click for enlarged view.

As always, the files in the online Archives, whether they are record transcriptions, newspaper cuttings, memorial cards, headstone or any other items of potential value to Irish genealogists, are free to access thanks to the individual volunteers who donate them.

CORK Genealogy Archives – Headstones
Holy Rosary Cemetery RC, Midleton, Parts 2&3
St Colman's RC Graveyard, Cloyne, Part 4 (Finished)

DUBLIN Genealogy Archives – Headstones
Kilbarrack Graveyard, Sutton, End of Section 2

LIMERICK Genealogy Archives – Headstones
Kinard (New) Cemetery, Glin

LONGFORD Genealogy Archives – Headstones
Kilcommock Old Graveyard (partial)

MONAGHAN Genealogy Archives – Headstones
St Dympnas CoI Graveyard, Ballinode (Text File updated)

Irish genealogy, history and heritage events from 2 to 15 May

Monday 2 May: May Bank Holiday across the island. All repositories closed.

Tuesday 3 May: The Treaty 1921, the National Archives of Ireland's exhibition is on tour and will be at The Source Arts Centre, Cathedral Road, Thurles, County Tipperary until 31 May. Free. In-person event. All welcome. Details.

Tuesday 3 May: Newspapers and Directories, an advanced family history workshop with Declan Brady. In-person at Richmond Barracks, Inchicore, Dublin 8. 6:30pm to 8:30pm. Free, but need to book. Fully booked.

Tuesday 3 May: Five Top Tips for Analysing your DNA Results, an online refresher class with Anne Johnston. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society. 7pm-8pm. Fee: £10. All welcome. Need to book.

Wednesday 4 May: Archives and Memory, North and South, an online discussion with Janet Hancock, Stephen Scarth and Tim Murtagh from PRONI and Nigel Johnston from NAI. Hosted by PRONI, NAI and Trinity Long Room Hub. 7pm–8:15pm. An online event. Free. All welcome. Details. Need to book.

Wednesday 4 May: Defending the Interests of Dublin's Poor: Sarah Cecilia Harrison and the 'greatest tragedy of modern times', an in-person event with Dr Mary Muldowney. Host: Dublin City Council. Venue: Central Library, Ilac Shopping Centre, Henry Street, Dublin 1. 1pm. Free. All welcome. Need to book.

Wednesday 4 May: Documentary screening of Burren Girl, a Minnesota woman's quest to discover her County Clare ancestors, followed by discussion. An in-person event (Ireland premier) to be hosted at Hotel Doolin, Fitz Cross, Doolin, Co Clare. 8pm to 10pm. All welcome. Free. Donations to Burrenbeo Trust appreciated. Booking essential. View trailer.

Thursday 5 May: The ruined Irish country house: reality and perception, with Robert O'Byrne. Part of the online Burning the Big House lecture series. Host: Centre for the Study of Historic Irish houses and Estates, History Department, Maynooth University. 7pm to 8pm. Booking. Fully booked.

Thursday 5 May: The Treaty 1921, the National Archives of Ireland's exhibition is on tour and will be at Donegal County Museum, High Road, Letterkenny, Co Donegal until 31 May. Free. In-person event. All welcome. Details.

Saturday 7 May: Discover and Publish your Irish Family History, an online presentation with Miles Davenport. Host: McClelland Irish Library, Phoenix, Arizona USA. 11am–1pm. All welcome. Members $15 / Non-Members: $20. Details and registration.

Monday 9 May: Pier 53, Philadelphia, an online talk with Susan McAninley, plus AGM. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Newtownabbey Branch. All welcome. Non-members should contact Branch Secretary at Newtownabbey@nifhs.org for zoom link. 7pm–8:30pm BST. Free.

Monday 9 May: Ferries on the Foyle, an online talk with Dr Jim Condren, plus AGM. Host: North of Ireland Family History Society, Foyle Branch. 7pm to 8:30pm. Talk Postponed.

Monday 9 May: Visit to the Livingstone Centre, an in-person event at The Livingstone Centre, 3 Church Hill, Killinchy, Newtownards, Co Down. Host: NIFHS, Killyleagh Branch. All welcome. For confirmation of meeting time and other details, contact the Branch Secretary at Killyleagh@nifhs.org.

Monday 9 May: Big Jim Larkin 1874-1947, an in-person talk with Historian-in-Residence James Curry. A Mondays at the Mess event. Venue: Richmond Barracks, Inchicore, Dublin 8. 7pm–8pm. All welcome. Admission: €5 full / €3 conc. – includes refreshments after the talk. Booking.

Tuesday 10 May: Towards an understanding of Mary MacSweeney: Trauma and the Brixton Hunger Strike, 1920, with Dr Leeann Lane, an in-person talk presented to coincide with The Treaty 1921 exhibition. Hosts: Tipperary County Council and the National Archives. 7pm. Free. All welcome. Venue: The Source, Cathedral St, Thurles, Co Tipperary. Details.

Tuesday 10 May: Military Records - Nineteenth century British Army, WW1 & the Irish Revolution, an advanced family history workshop with Declan Brady. In-person at Richmond Barracks, Inchicore, Dublin 8. 6:30pm to 8:30pm. Free. Details. Fully booked

Wednesday 11 May: Waterford Heritage – Plans, Projects and Partnerships, an in-person event with Bernadette Guest, Waterford County Heritage Officer discussing her role and projects. Host: Waterford Museum Society. All welcome. 8pm. Venue: upstairs at Merry’s Gastro Bar, Lower Main Street Dungarvan. Admission fee €5.

Thursday 12 May: Grangegorman's archive collection, an online lecture with Brian Donnelly, senior archivist at the NAI. Host: TU Dublin Conservatoire. Part of the Stages of Memory project. 5pm. Free. All welcome. Need to register on Eventbrite.

Thursday 12 May: ‘Such troubled times’: the burning of big houses in Northern Ireland 1921-1981, with Olwen Purdue. Part of the online Burning the Big House lecture series. Host: Centre for the Study of Historic Irish houses and Estates, History Department, Maynooth University. 7pm to 8pm. Booking. Fully booked.

Sunday 15 May: O'Connell Avenue, Limerick City, a free walking tour with Dr Paul O'Brien. An in-person event. Meet at the Model School at 1.45pm. Tour starts at 2pm. All welcome.

LandedEstates.ie restored, moved and awaiting further improvement

The disappearance of the LandedEstates.ie database so soon after it had been restored following last September's attempted hack was greeted with dismayed groans over the last couple of weeks. But it's back, at http://landedestates.ie, and all systems are go.

NUI Galway tells me that the downtime resulted from the database being moved to new hosting and – fingers crossed – this should be the last of the unexpected outages. 

There are also plans for further improvement of the new version of the database over the coming months.

New edition of Divided States reading list published

An updated edition of Divided States: Irish Independence and its Aftermath 1918-1923, a reading list produced by the Church of Ireland’s Historical Centenaries Working Group, has been published online. 

 It will be of interest to those family historians who are studying this era of the island's past, with its very different narratives and interpretations. 

Divided States firstly covers the wider context of Irish history. It goes on to explore a number of more specialised topics: nationalism and unionism, events in Ireland in the crucial decade of 1913-1923, local studies, the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the Civil War, Partition and the development of Northern Ireland, the Southern Protestant community, and the role of women in the revolutionary era, alongside a number of personal perspectives. 

The reading list was first published in April 2019. Both the first edition and this new edition, which includes an updated representative selection of the historical literature of the period, are available to read and download free of charge here.

Click the image to download the new edition.

Listen up! Paul Gorry MAGI launches the Irish GenPod series

Accredited Professional Genealogist Paul Gorry has launched a new podcast series in which he chats with individuals working within the Irish genealogy community. It's called the Irish GenPod series, and aims to discover more about the background, experience, views and character of some of the island's well-known and not-so-well-known family historians.

In the first episode, Paul interviewed Nichola Morris MAGI, one of Ireland's most hard-working genealogists. You may recognise her name from many of the best-known ancestor hunt TV shows produced on both sides of the Atlantic, or from presenting lectures and teaching classes, or from her column in Irish Roots magazine.

When she's not meeting the likes of Jeremy Irons and Judi Dench, she manages to run her own genealogy research company and is currently in her first of a three-year-term as President of Accredited Genealogists Ireland, the accrediting and representative body for professional genealogists across the island.

This week is was Dr Brendan Scott's turn to share the mike with Paul. Brendan is another hard-worker... it seems to be a required personality trait for those who successfully develop a full-time career in genealogy. He is an academic, historian and lecturer, the manager of RootsIreland.ie (the not-for-profit database of records gathered and transcribed by genealogists working in the Irish Family History Foundation's network of genealogy centres), a writer and editor of history books and local/family history journals – he is currently sharing the research and writing for the Irish Historical Towns Atlas of Cavan – and is Cavan County Council's historian-in-residence, coordinating and supporting the local Decade of Centenaries Programme.

Each of the interviews runs to around 35 minutes and, although the conversations are suitably relaxed, they are quite densely packed with detail. Among the mix of topics discussed, you'll hear some behind-the-scenes observations on the manners (or lack of them) of celebrities and receive advance notice of imminent record releases!

You'll find the Irish GenPod series on the SoundCloud platform, where it is hosted by Senior Times, the magazine produced by the organisers of the Back To Our Past show. Here's the link: soundcloud.com/user-682413562-561358898

The Treaty, 1921: Records from the Archives: exhibition starts tour

After a hugely successful three-month stint at Dublin Castle where the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 went on public display for the first time, The Treaty 1921: Records from the Archives exhbition is now on tour. This week, it has arrived in Wicklow, where it is will remain until 17 May.

Using the Anglo-Irish Treaty as a centrepiece, the National Archives has created an exhibition that marks its role as the official repository of the records of the State, one hundred years since its formation. It opens up significant historical records, official documents and private papers for the first time, including the first public presentation of both the Irish and British copes of the Treaty document.

The Wicklow stop of the tour will additionally include the papers of Wicklow's Robert Childers Barton, who was one of the plenipotentiaries of the treaty, local records from the Wicklow County Archives collection and some items loaned from the Military Archives collection. You'll find more details here.

The exhibition is free to visit at the county's newly-opened Library & Archive venue in The Mall during the following hours:

• Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat: 10am – 5pm
• Tues, Thurs: 10am – 8.30pm

A series of three in-person public talks will also be presented while the exhibition is in Wicklow. These will held at the Council Buildings (Whitegates, Wicklow Town). While they are free to attend, it is essential to book via Eventbrite in advance. The talks are:

Wednesday 27 April: The Anglo-Irish Treaty, with Dr Cormac Moore. 7pm to 8:30pm. Fully booked.

Wednesday 4 May: Robert Barton and the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty, with historian and genealogist Sean Murphy. 7pm to 8:30pm. Book here.

Wednesday 11 May: Wicklow: The War of Independence & Civil War - Military Archives Sources, with Lisa Dolan, Archivist at the Military Archives. 7pm to 8:30pm. Book here.

Other stops for the tour are:

• Tuesday 3 May: Venue:The Source, Cathedral Rd, Thurles, Co. Tipperary to 31 May.
• Thursday 5 May: Venue: Donegal County Museum, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal to 31 May.
• Monday 23 May: Venue: County Hall, Wexford Town, to 10 June.
• Thursday 9 June: Venue: St. Peter’s Church, North Main St, Cork City to 5 July.
• Thursday 9 June: Limerick CC Council, Merchants Quay, Limerick City to 30 June.

If you are unable to visit the exhibition as it tours the country, you can enjoy a virtual tour, here.