ITMA is delighted to announce the appointment of Sophie Ryan and Rónán Galvin as part of its Rights and Public Access Project. ITMA Digitisation and Digital Access Officer Brian Doyle has been seconded to work on the project.
In May 2023, ITMA was awarded Capacity Heritage funding from The Heritage Council of Ireland for its project on Rights and Public Access to ITMA online collections.
The first phase of this project, led by Rights Consultant Barry Lynn, focused on developing a process around the clearance of rights to ITMA audio collections in order to maximise online public access. Barry was the Rights Officer for the Unlocking Our Sound Heritage Project (UOSH) for National Museums Northern Ireland. He is passionate and meticulous about rights-clearance work and is knowledgeable about traditional music and its performers.
The second phase of the project, now underway, sees the employment for a period of four months of Sophie and Rónán as Rights and Public Access Officers. Sophie and Rónán have begun the work of clearing rights in ITMA collections for online dissemination. A rights database will be maintained in order to document and manage evidence of the due diligence process undertaken and to ensure any access restrictions are reflected accurately in collection metadata and in archival systems.
Originally from Laois, Sophie obtained her Bachelor of Music from University College Cork in 2023. A talented harpist, Sophie was president of the UCC Trad Society in 2022.
A fiddle player from Dublin with strong connections to Donegal through both his parents, Rónán was awarded an MLitt in Irish Folklore from UCD in 2010, where he also lectured in traditional music for four years
