On Wednesday 9th of October the Digital Repository of Ireland welcomed the winner of our 2024 Community Archive Scheme Michael Fortune of Folklore.ie to the Royal Irish Academy to talk to an audience about his collection of stories from the Irish Traveller community, A Bird in the House, God Bless Her.
Launched in 2019, the DRI Community Archive Scheme provides free DRI associate membership, bespoke digital preservation training, and DRI’s profession-based knowledge and support to under-resourced community archivists and community groups so that they can preserve their stories in an open-access repository. It is vital that community archivists are supported with the resources to carry out their work as ‘the loss of tools, data or services within this group would impact on people and sectors around the world’ (Digital Preservation Coalition, Global ‘Bit List’ of Endangered Digital Species 2023). The aim of the DRI Community Archive Scheme is to acknowledge the significant work of community archivists and to empower and support them in curating, preserving, and sharing their own stories in an open access format.
Community Archive Scheme has been awarded an Ireland eGovernment Award 2024 in the Open Data Category, which recognises initiatives that demonstrate comprehensive data accessibility, usability, and societal impact. The DRI Community Archive Scheme 2025 is open for applications until Friday, 8 November 2024.
The event formed part of the Dublin Festival of History which is an annual free festival, run by Dublin City Council, and organised by Dublin City Libraries, in partnership with the Dublin City Council Culture Company, the festival is in its twelfth year and is a major part of Dublin’s cultural calendar. We were delighted to be joined by the festival’s Producer Heather McLeod & Marketing Manager Sree Sen.
Michael won the Community Archive Scheme 2024 with his audio visual collection A Bird in the House, God Bless Her, which he recorded and produced between September 2017 and March 2018 with members of the Traveller community in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. The recordings document rare Easter and May Day customs, including personal stories involving fairies, the banshee and shape-shifting hares.
Much of Michael’s practice revolves around the collection of material which he generates out of the relationships and experiences he develops with the people he encounters. The intimate nature of the relationships with the people and circumstances he encounters, and the subsequent reflective treatment of the material at hand, is a key feature of his work.
Michael invited some of the members of the Southside Traveller’s Action Group (STAG) to join him on stage to talk about those customs and traditions that resonated with members of the audience from ages, backgrounds and countries. The practice of protection from wearing a cord, offerings on all soul’s night, the banshees comb, and a bird flying into your house.
The format was open and stories were shared, audience members got involved talking about their versions of customs and stories going back some generations in their families, Michael remarked that there is more that connects us as people than divides us.
The event left us all with a greater understanding of traditions and practices of all of our ancestors and with an interest in finding out more.
