www.itma.ie

Sponsored by Inishowen Development Partnership, this project is a collaboration between the Inishowen Traditional Singers’ Circle (ITSC) and the Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA) in Dublin, to host recordings, photographs & song lyrics, collected in Inishowen, on the Archive’s website (www.itma.ie/digitallibrary). This state-of-the-art digital facility will provide local, national and international access to Inishowen song material in a professional archival and web-based environment.

The first publishing of local songs was done in 1985 – My parents reared me tenderly – songs collected by Jimmy McBride & Jim MacFarland. We have received permission from both collectors to digitally republish this book as part of this ITSC/ITMA project. Web visitors will be able to hear a digitally re-mastered recording of the song, view the words from the original book and see a photograph of the singer.

Because of its presence on the ITMA website, the material will also sit on the European Digital Library – www.europeana.org a project funded by the European Commission to explore the digital resources of Europe’s museums, libraries, archives and audio-visual collections.

Nicholas Carolan, Director of ITMA, will formally launch the project as part of the official opening of this year’s Inishowen Traditional Singers Circle Festival which runs from March 23rd – 26th, 2012.