One of Donegal County Council’s Creative Ireland projects for 2017 has been the digitisation of two invaluable collections from Donegal County Archives.
The Archives Service has now placed the digitised images from these original documents on the Councils website for all to view.
The following is an outline of just two of the amazing catalogues available.
Fanad District Nursing Association (Health Club)
This collection contains a minute book and documents relating to the Fanad
Health Club, a 1930s District Nursing association, one of the district nursing associations which operated under the Queen’s Institute of Nursing and the Lady Dudley Nursing Scheme. The collection includes correspondence and notes relating to the setting up of the Club; correspondence between members of Fanad Health Club, including between Sean Ó Deagha, County Medical Officer of Health, Coiste Slainte Dhún na nGall, and Miss E. R. C. Hart, Carrablagh, Portsalon, secretary and later president of the Club, on the management of the association, employment of district nurses, accommodation for each nurse, nurses’ performances, finances etc. Also included are wide range of newspaper articles, fundraising documentation, photographs; minutes of meetings and notes of events.
A Social & Cultural Study of Crofter Life on the West Donegal Seaboard (Thesis by Patrick O’Neill)
Also digitised is a 1940 thesis in two volumes by Patrick O’Neill, entitled ‘A Social and Cultural Study of Crofter Life on the West Donegal Seaboard’. Chapters in the first volume include on climate, soil, agriculture (corn, manures, potatoes, crop rotation), transhumance and livestock, rundale, congestion and land tenure, home industries, fishing, curraghs, and housing. The second volume includes hand drawn statistical maps of Donegal, including of structural features of a sea curragh. It also includes a sketch of ‘crofter’s lime kiln’, drawings of spools and pot for holding yarn and house types along western seaboard plus older types of ‘crofter dwelling’. There are also photographs from various parts of the county, such as Upper Finn Valley, Teelin, Knockfola and Ranafast.
The thesis was submitted to Queens University Belfast.
Both the above collections are now available to view online at
http://www.donegalcoco.ie/culture/archives/selected%20digitised%20archives/.
For more information on Donegal County Archives call 074 91 72490 or email archivist@donegalcoco.ie or following Donegal County Archives on Facebook.
