Voices of Dún Chaocháin: Recordings from the Early 1990s

The Dún Chaocháin oral history collection was first identified by Mac Conmara Heritage Consulting during the Mayo Audit of Oral Heritage Collections as one of the county's highest-priority collections for preservation. Recorded as part of a Euroform project in the early 1990s, the collection captures the voices of Dún Chaocháin natives and preserves a unique record of Irish-language life, folklore, local traditions and community memory. For more than thirty years, these recordings have remained on fragile analogue tapes. Today, through the Recovering Voices digitisation project, delivered by Mac Conmara Heritage Consulting, they are being professionally preserved for future generations.

This Heritage Week event offers a behind-the-scenes look at the project, showcasing selected recordings, photographs and archival material while demonstrating how ageing audio tapes are assessed, digitised, catalogued and prepared for long-term preservation. Learn about the professional standards behind the work, the creation of searchable metadata and digital catalogues, and the plans to ensure the collection remains accessible for education, research and the local community for generations to come.

Join us to hear a selection of voices that have not been publicly heard for decades, discover the stories they preserve, and explore how today's digitisation work is safeguarding one of Mayo's most significant oral heritage collections and an irreplaceable part of the county's Irish-language heritage for the future.