Muintir na Tíre has recently donated its archive to NUI
Galway. Muintir na Tíre is one of the most important national associations for the
promotion of community development in Ireland. It was founded in 1937 by Canon John Hayes,
in Tipperary (a future blog will focus on Canon Hayes). Through its core principles of
neighbourliness, self-help and self-reliance, Muintir na Tíre has promoted and
supported the concept of active community participation and championed the idea
of community development in both Ireland and Europe.
This is a very significant archive of an organisation which
from its beginnings sought to revitalise local communities in rural Ireland and
foster and develop a community spirit from the 1930s to the present day.
This substantial archive consisting of 162 boxes and
approximately 8,217 items was transferred to the James Hardiman Library in
December of 2016. The archive consists of paper files, publications,
photographs, loose documents, floppy disks, VHS tapes, cassette tapes, vinyl
and bound volumes.
The archive came from the headquarters of Muintir na Tíre,
Canon Hayes House, Tipperary. The archive was stored in banker’s boxes which
were arranged by Muintir via two projects in 2010 and 2015 an example below:
and
in shelves like the picture below:
The material that was selected from the shelves were
transferred to us in large boxes as shown below:
I have been hired to review, arrange and catalogue the
archive. I being Fiona Kearney a qualified archivist and records manager. I
began researching Muintir na Tíre by reading Stephen Rynne’s “Father John
Hayes: founder of Muintir na Tíre, People of the Land”, Mark Tierney’s “The Story of Muintir na Tíre 1931-2001 – the Frist
Seventy Years” and various articles and theses written on Muintir na Tíre. This
has given me a good understanding of the organisation and the work that it did
throughout its history. A search of our collection can be seen here.
I have already begun opening the boxes to
explore the wonders of the collection. I am currently identifying what the
files contain so that I can begin to arrange the collection. This phase also involves
some conservation work where I am removing rusty staples and paper clips and
replacing them with plastic paper clips which do not damage the paper.
An example of a completed file and a file that has rusty
paperclips and staples.
I am replacing the folders with acid free ones. I am also
identifying any records that need further conservation work or which will need to
be copied such as thermal paper, predominantly fax paper.
The process of archiving a collection from receipt to
discoverability and availability to researchers takes a considerable time. I
have fifteen months to complete this project. The end result will look like this.
I hope you will join me on my journey of archiving the
collection where I will provide monthly updates on the project.
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