ACHILL ORAL HISTORIES
A strictly not for profit community initiative dedicated to the systematic recording and archiving of life on Achill Island, Co Mayo Ireland as told by the people of Achill past and present.
An oral history interview allows you to take centre stage in your own story
In the oral history method, ordinary people are the heroes of their accounts of their own life histories. Everyday activities provide the content for the events within the story. A central objective of Achill Oral Histories is to develop a comprehensive archive of real stories of life about life on Achill as recounted by local Achill people. Recordings gathered using the oral history method are often made available for future posterity in a public depository, such as a library or other venue.
At Achill Oral Histories, we are committed to ethical practices at every stage of the oral history process. Our ethics and integrity information pack provides a participant information sheet, a participant consent form and a sample copyright agreement form. We owe a debt of gratitude to our friends and colleagues at the Oral History Network Of Ireland, The British Oral History Society and the East Midlands Oral History Archive for the resources we have used for our information pack.
Future plans include:
- Having an exhibition on 16th August 2023 featuring the oral histories of the people of Achill as part of Heritage Week 2023
- Producing a series of publications book featuring peoples' oral accounts of Achill island life
- Writing scholarly journal papers about how life on Achill has responded to social, economic and cultural shifts over time; the importance of Achill's unique landscape in shaping 'place.'
What happens after my interview?
Three things happen after your interview:
(i) You’ll be sent an audio CD (or other format of your choice) of your interview. This is yours to keep. You can share your recording with family and friends. You can also use the recording to tell us what part of your interview you would like to be included in our online Achill Oral Histories archive. We aim to make the audio recording of your interview available to you between 6 - 8weeks of your interview.
(ii) You’ll receive a written word for word transcript of your interview. We generally use Arial font size 12 double spaced. Other formats are available on request. The transcript is yours to keep. You can share your transcript with family and friends. We ask that you check the transcript for accuracy. When published online, your transcript will match your voice recording. Please note that transcripts normally take between 6 - 8 weeks after the interview to be produced.
(iii) When you are happy (and only then) with the content of the voice recording and your transcript, both will be uploaded on our web site. Your story will only be made public if you are entirely happy with it. You can ask for your story to be removed at at time. You can also a follow up a interview if you would like to add to your existing account of Achill life.
So please get in touch if you'd like share your story about life on Achill with us - we'd love to hear from you. Help us keep Achill's special story alive and well - both now and in the future.