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National photo resource launched on website

November 3rd, 2017 10:05 PM

By Southern Star Team

Ballingeary in 1925. (Photo: Carl W Von Sydow)

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More than 10,000 historic pictures from Ireland's past, including many from Cork, have been added to a folklore website.

MORE than 10,000 historic pictures from Ireland’s past, including many from Cork, have been added to a folklore website.

The  redesigned duchas.ie website and photographic collection features 10,000 photographs which have been digitised, catalogued and made available for the first time on the site.

FG senator Tim Lombard described it as an ‘incredible new resource for Cork and indeed wider Ireland.’

He said: ‘A large number of the photographs date from the early 20th century, providing a fascinating insight into our past.The collection contains photographs taken by professional photographers and by collectors working with the National Folklore Commission, amongst others, and are classified under 14 different topics including: festivals; holy wells; settlement; folklore collection; and games and pastimes. Although it’s fair to say that there is a particular emphasis on country life, towns and cities were not neglected.’

In addition to this, material from each of the 26 counties that took part in the Schools’ Scheme in 1937-39 is also available on the website. Meitheal Duchas.ie, a transcription project, began in Spring 2015 and is one of the most successful crowdsourced projects of its kind in the world. The objective of the project is to digitise the National Folklore Collection and make it available to the public online. 

The project is co-funded by the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, with support from the National Lottery and by University College Dublin. 

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