*** Apologies for the cross-post -- I'm announcing this to a couple of
lists, so my apologies if you receive it more than once! ***


I’m happy to announce the public availability of the Comhaltas Traditional
Music Archive, online today at

http://ComhaltasArchive.ie

The core of the Comhaltas collection is a set of tapes collected by Séamus
MacMathúna, mostly in the 1970s and 1980s. These have been digitised, and
we’re working on other collections from Cois na hAbhna in Ennis, Co. Clare
and Ceoláras Coleman in Gurteen, Co. Sligo. We’re also scanning the 40-year
history of Treoir, our own quarterly journal.

The website is a unified window into the Comhaltas Archive, including audio,
video, magazines, print and biographical data. Of course, we’re just at the
beginning of posting the content, and we have lots more information ready to
go up in the next few months. In January, for example, you can look forward
to the full collection of Comhaltas-produced LPs and cassettes.

One thing that we’re particularly excited about is the level of interaction
that we’re expecting. As a user of the archive you can suggest people, tunes
and keywords for all of our tracks, helping to fill in the gaps for other
researchers. You may also leave general comments on anything that you see.

You are all welcome to browse freely without registering, though audiovisual
media will be limited to 30 seconds. If you create an account (available
today), you can hear tracks at their full length, comment on items and
request copies of media. For many of our tracks, agreements with the
musicians have meant that we’ve interrupted the audio every 30 seconds, just
to make sure that recordings are not exploited commercially. If you visit a
Comhaltas Regional Resource Centre, you can listen to items in their
entirety. You are always welcome to come by and have a chat with our
regional Archivists.

I’d encourage you all to have a look, and let me know (via
[log in to unmask]) about any problems that you have. Of course, as with
all new software, we can expect some growing pains as we get everything
settled in, so I appreciate your patience in the first few months.

Ádh mór,

Breandán

Breandán Ó Nualltáin
Oifigeach Tionscadail
Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann
Promoting Irish Culture.
Web: http://comhaltas.ie
Email: [log in to unmask]