Inspiring Ireland: Preservation, the

Public and Collaborative Collection

WHAT? Inspiring Ireland is an award-winning

•Single online open access portal to Ireland’s digital cultural

heritage

•Unique collaboration: DRI, Irish & Welsh National Cultural

Institutions (NCIs), Private collectors

•Collections of objects about life in Ireland in 1916

•Site that promotes knowledge of Ireland overseas

WHY? •Speaks to DRI's core principles: preserve, discover, share

•Multi-institutional, transnational and private content

•Pilot project to test the DRI’s Application Programming Interface

(API) functionality

•Curated exhibitions to enhance and expand the user experience

•Long-term preservation of content in a trusted digital repository

infrastructure

Inspiring Ireland 1916

weaves public and private

narratives with expert

commentary alongside

iconic objects from NCIs,

and ‘found’ objects from

private collections, to create

a multi-media reflection on

the people, events, and

legacy of 1916.

HOW? •Digitised objects contributed by NCIs

•Public Memorabilia digitised at national/international ‘Collection Days’

•Metadata and Open Access licensing applied to DRI collections

•Published to the Inspiring Ireland Drupal site via DRI’s Application

Programming Interface (API)

•Thematic exhibitions with contextual history essays

•Deeper object knowledge via curatorial text & personal narrative

CHALLENGES •Metadata control

•Site functionality vs.

collection integrity

•Rights Management

RESULTS •Global user base

•Open Access to Irish

history sources

•New modes of hybrid

digital scholarship

•Serendipitous research

finds

•Over 300 digital

objects

•10 thematic

exhibitions

•4 Collection Days

•84 private donors

Clockwise from top left: Tommy 'Banker' Walsh (donated: RTE), Fairyhouse

Race Card, Easter Monday 1916 (donated: Patricia Hendrick), Pocket Watch

Hopkins &Hopkins (donated: Caroline McGee), Eden Quay, May 17 1916

(donated: Royal Irish Academy).