Éamon de Buitléar, film maker, musician, environmentalist, and Ireland’s answer to David Attenborough, has presented his personal archive to NUI Galway.
Mr de Buitléar’s archive, presented to the university yesterday, consists of his documentary films; material relating to the history of broadcasting and film production in Ireland; music recordings of Seán Ó Riada, Ceoltóirí Chualann, and Ceoltóirí Laighean; visual and audio records of environmental studies; material from the de Buitléar family papers.
“The collection contains my life’s work,” said Mr de Buitléar. “The environment, the Irish language and our native music have been cornerstones of my work, and I am happy the archive will find a home in NUIG. It is important that the collection will be available and accessible, particularly to young people and also to the Gaeltacht community in Connemara.”
The collection will be accessible in the new Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Research Building which will open on campus in 2013 and at the university’s Gaeltacht centres in Carna and at An Cheathrú Rua.
In order to mark the presentation NUIG is currently hosting an exhibition in the James Hardiman Library, highlighting the diversity of Éamon de Buitléar’s work and displaying items from the collection.
The Éamon de Buitléar Archive will complement existing and newly acquired collections in the James Hardiman Library such as the project to digitise the Abbey Theatre archive and the acquisition of the papers of Brendan Duddy, Thomas Kilroy, and John McGahern.
