A new website featuring extracts from Bailiúchán Béaloidis Árann (the Árainn Folklore Project ), a community folklore collection that is more than twenty years a-growing, will be launched next month in Inis Mór, the largest of the three Aran Islands. Partnering on the project are Gaois, Fiontar & Scoil na Gaeilge, DCU, and the National Folklore Collection at UCD, the co-creators of the website dúchas.ie.
Bailiúchán Béaloidis Árann is the only major collection of island folklore to be created by Inis Mór islanders themselves. Over many years since 2000, Bailiúchán Béaloidis Árann has earned support from major figures of the Aran canon including photographer Bill Doyle, writer and cartographer Tim Robinson, and linguist Dr. James Duran. In addition, it has produced two fine books, Árainn: Cosáin an tSaoil (2003 ) and Ár nOileán: Tuile is Trá (2004 ).
When Bailiúchán Béaloidis Árann was founded, it had two primary objectives: to preserve island folklore for future generations of islanders; and that the island’s folklore would be accessible on the island itself. The new website enables islanders to combine those two objectives.
The website includes hundreds of photographs and 102 audio recordings, as well as some videos collected over the past twenty years. All of these are enriched with detailed information, identifying the individuals and places appearing in them. The website’s search capacity extends to a variety of elements, and transcriptions written by island women accompany the sound recordings of interviews.
In giving this valuable collection a new digital lease of life, the people of Árainn now have easy, bilingual access to their own heritage from anywhere in the world. Such cultural riches can also impact the huge numbers of tourists visiting Árainn each year.
The island-based project team said: “We are so pleased that people will be able to access the material anytime and anywhere, on an attractive and easy-to-use platform. We are extremely grateful to our partners in Gaois, Fiontar & Scoil na Gaeilge, DCU, and in the National Folklore Collection, UCD; and also to our funders: LEADER, the Heritage Council of Ireland, and the local co-op Comharchumann Forbartha Árann.”
The project’s digital curator Deirdre Ní Chonghaile said: “Though the entire collection awaits a permanent home at home in Árainn, we remain hopeful its day will come. In the meantime, people will savour and delight in this new resource, which demonstrates so well the faith and creativity of the women who created Bailiúchán Béaloidis Árann, attributes that will undoubtedly inspire other communities.”
The website will be launched by Dr Críostóir Mac Cárthaigh, Director of the National Folklore Collection, in Kilmurvey House in Árainn 2.30-4.00pm Friday 6 January 2023. It is available at https://www.bba.duchas.ie.
