Thursday 8 March 2012

New social and historical topics on AskAboutIreland

Askaboutireland.ie, the splendid site best known in Irish genealogy circles for its free access to Griffiths Valuation, is being updated with a number of new topics of social and historical interest.

First up, and already live, is a Traditional Irish Cooking section which has been developed with renowned Irish chef Kevin Dundon.

It covers the evolution of Irish cooking across five themes: Dairy, Meat, Poultry & Game, From the Field and From the Sea and includes recipes based on traditional cooking. Videos are available, too.

The Arts and Literature section of the Reading Room is also rather lovely to dip into. It now contains a collection of over thirty traditional Irish songs and children’s songs, which have been recorded.

Some were performed with harp accompaniment and most were performed with a capella. In addition to audio recordings (a selection is also on video), the lyrics and origins of the songs are also available.

For those with an interest in the history of farming, an overview of Farming in Ireland will shortly be uploaded. This has been created in co-operation with the Irish Farmers Journal and is a comprehensive view of key aspects and trends. It also features a substantial collection of images from the archives of the Farmer’s Journal, together with a number of videos.

The AskaboutIreland website is continuing to grow in popularity and usage attracts an average of 30,000 visits per week currently, over 50% of which are from nationally-based users, with the balance coming from the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada and the rest of Europe.