THE folklore of the Donegal Gaeltacht will be made available on a computerised database in the near future thanks to funding approved for NUI in Gweedore this week.
Minister Mary Coughlan this week welcomed the announcement from her colleague Minister O'Cuiv saying 360,000 euro of a grant for the folklore collection project here.
Speaking to the Donegal News this week the Director of Acadamh na hOllscolaíochta Gaeilge in Gweedore Mr Eamonn MacNiallais explained the funding would now allow for the full-time employment of three people who had been conducting research on a part-time basis.
"The project has been running here for the past two years with two researchers employed to go around the Gaeltacht areas of the county collecting stuff from local people or recording with them.
"The findings are put on computer and our aim is to present all of the information in a searchable database that can be accessed over the internet. Up until this funding was announced we were unable to retain the researchers to complete the project. We can now bring the researchers back and drive the project forward," Mr MacNiallais said.
PRESERVE FOR POSTERITY
The Director said that not only would the website be a useful tool for people researching Irish folklore, it would also go a long way to preserving words and dialects that may be in danger of disappearing.
"There are collections of folklore which have been gathered before which are sitting in filing cabinets. These can now be made much more accessible. The project is a way of combining the old - folklore, and the new - technology. When completed people will be able to search the database using a name, a townland, a theme or working trends.
"With the change in occupations , it is important to preserve the language and words of the fisherman and the farmer who worked so closely with nature and had names for everything which could be lost," Mr MacNiallais added.
The project plan to talk to community groups in Gaeltacht areas in the hope of identifying people with stories to tell. It is not just ancient stories being sought, they also want to record the experiences of people who may have gone to Scotland to work in the early part of the last century.
Welcoming the project funding Minister Coughlan said she was delighted that this valuable project, which will preserve the rich and proud history of the local Gaeltacht, has been granted significant funding.
"When complete, it will provide a priceless record of the cultural and linguistic history of the area for ourselves and future generations," Minister Coughlan added.
