Still from Trish McAdam's Confinement
Still from Trish McAdam's Confinement

BAI awards five projects under latest round of Archiving Scheme 2

The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) has announced details of the latest funding awards under Archiving Scheme 2, a BAI Broadcasting Funding Scheme initiative. Archiving Scheme 2 is a support scheme funded through the television licence fee, to encourage and promote the development of an archiving culture in the Irish broadcasting sector, contributing to the safeguarding of Irish heritage.

In common with the previous rounds under the Scheme, the latest round focused on the safeguarding of programme material threatened by fragile physical condition or soon to be obsolete formats. Eleven applications were received in total, from which five projects were awarded funding of €1.34 million. These are:

  • IFI in partnership with Margo Harkin, Anne Crilly and Trish McAdam: Preservation and digitisation of work, dating from the 1980s to the 2000s, of these influential Irish female film makers. Includes documentary, speech and film material.
  • National Folklore Collection UCD with partners RTÉ, Fiontar and Scoil na Gaeilge DCU: Digitisation of audio recordings made by the Irish Folklore Commission (1935 – 1970) and Raidió Éireann (1947 – 1955), amounting to 700 hours of speech, song and music.
  • TG4 with partners RTÉ, NUIG and Europus: Preservation and indexing of 1,302.5 hours of TG4’s Irish language news and current affairs programmes.
  • Guinness Archive with partners IFI and BFI: Creation of a publicly accessible comprehensive digital archive of Guinness broadcast advertising from 1955 to 1995. RTÉ with partners Fiontar and Scoil na Gaeilge DCU: Safeguarding a collection of approximately 1,400 hours of cláracha Gaeilge / Irish language programme recordings dating from the 1960s to 1990s.

We are delighted to announce funding support for these five successful projects under this round of Archiving Scheme 2. These applications clearly articulated both a cultural value and a need for safeguarding, and were well aligned to the objectives of the Scheme. In particular, the access commitments and collaborative approaches adopted, evidenced by the number of partners involved in the projects, was welcomed.

The Scheme makes a hugely important contribution to the preservation of Ireland’s broadcasting tradition and the ongoing growth of a record of Irish culture, heritage and experience.

Michael O’Keeffe – Chief Executive of the BAI

The BAI will now commence contract negotiations with all successful applicants. More information on Archiving Scheme 2 is available here.