Preserving the Photographic Archive of the Parish of the Travelling People
Bwikad ai Photographic Stama an Rabista a Mincéirí Nīd′as
This story reports on work funded by the Heritage Council that is being carried out by Dr Elizabeth Mullins in collaboration with the Parish of the Travelling People to preserve a valuable photographic archive linked to the travelling community.
(opens in a new window)The Parish of the Travelling People was established in 1980 by Archbishop Dermot Ryan. Since its establishment, this unique parish has worked to provide pastoral care to members of the travelling community living in the Dublin diocese and to raise awareness of human rights issues affecting Travellers. The parish’s work has created a valuable archive, including administrative records, scrapbooks, parish newsletters, audio recordings, and a large quantity of photographs.
The photographic collection documents the life of the parish since its beginning. It includes material created by the parish and additional images, donated by the community, in search of good keeping and in request of prayers. The photos capture images of a range of sacramental occasions such as baptisms, first communions and weddings. They also document social events in the parish and various pilgrimages undertaken by the parish sometimes in conjunction with other Traveller/ Mincéirí groups to raise awareness of human rights issues.
Following a successful application for funding from the Heritage Council, current work being carried out by Elizabeth Mullins in collaboration with members of the parish council, including Oein de Bharduin, Traveller Cultural Collections Officer at the National Museum of Ireland, focuses on securing the preservation of some 8000 photographs and their continued accessibility to the community. The Heritage Council funding has been used to purchase archival grade storage supplies to facilitate the repacking of the analogue photos in a way that will secure their long-term preservation and storage. It has also been used for the second strand of the project which ensures the continued accessibility of this treasured collection to the community by the creation of a series of photobooks based on c 5000 digital surrogates of these images. In this way this valuable visual archive documenting the history of traveller faith is being preserved for the long term while continuing to be accessible to the community which created it. It also serves to secure an often-neglected aspect of Irish social and cultural history.
© Images copyright of Parish of the Travelling People Archive.
