Q. Name of project
The Database of Irish Historical Statistics
Q. Name of project IN ENGLISH
The Database of Irish Historical Statistics
Q. Principal researcher(s)
E. Margaret Crawford (Belfast), Martin W. Dowling (Belfast), Paul S. Ell (Belfast). In addition, the project had a management committee who were responsible for obtaining grant income, overseeing the work, assisting with publications and other developments. This group included K. D. Brown, L.A. Clarkson, Max Goldstrom and Liam Kennedy (all Belfast).
Q. Who can/should be contacted now, and how?
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Name: |
Dr. Paul S. Ell |
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Postal Address: |
The Centre for Data Digitisation and Analysis, |
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E-mail Address: |
p.ell@qub.ac.uk |
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Web site: |
www.qub.ac.uk/cdda (includes a link to the Database of Irish Historical Statistics web section) |
Q. When did research begin?
October 1990
Q. Is the project still in existence?
No, but further grant applications are being considered to develop and extend the project.
Q. If it has ended, when did it end?
February 1996
Q. What institution(s) was the project based in?
The Department of Economic and Social History, The Queen’s University of Belfast.
Q. How many people were/are employed, and for how long? Were these people recruited specially for the project, or were they already employed by the institution(s)?
The project was divided into two parts. The first part was concerned with the computerisation of Irish census statistics for the period 1821 to 1911. It employed one research officer, a clerical officer, and some part time assistants between 1990 and 1993. The second part was concerned with the digitisation of statistics from 1912 to 1971 together with some work to allow the data to be mapped. It employed two research officers, a clerical officer and some part time assistants between 1993 and 1996.
Q. How much did the project cost? (please give cost in local currency and (Euros and/or US dollars).
It is difficult to calculate an exact cost as some staff were supported by the University. In terms of grant income the project cost around £180,000 or €300,000.
Q. Who paid for the project?
The Economic and Social Research Council and the Queen’s University of Belfast.
Q. If the project is still underway, has all necessary funding to complete the project been raised?
The project realised its aims, but it should be noted that these aims were limited and much work could still be done. For example, the project did not computerise statistics for smaller census units (such as parishes and townlands) and it was not concerned with the development of a full time-variant GIS.
Q. How easy has it been to raise the money?
In terms of the development of the core project (concerned with the digitisation of census statistics) it was relatively easy to obtain funding. Only two grant applications were written and both were successful. However, the first application requested funding for two academic posts, and funding for only one was offered. The post that was not funded would have employed a research officer skilled in computing. The project suffered through a lack of technical support as a result.
Subsidiary applications, which were concerned with developing the resource to make it more accessible to researchers, and to fund traditional academic research using the Database as a foundation, have proved to be less successful.
Q. Other than raising the money, what are the biggest problems your project has faced?
Technical problems mostly involving the relational database management system used, Ingres. Also difficulties in making the database accessible to scholars in terms of making the Database easy to use.
Q. How likely is it that further funding might be raised within your country for a collaborative European project?
In the Republic of Ireland funding to support academic projects is very limited. Northern Ireland has access to funds from the British Research Councils and other sources. The funders would not preclude applications involving a network of collaborators in other European counties, and any application might be strengthened through such links.
Q. What geographical area is covered by the project? What is the MODERN legal status of this area? (i.e. is it a nation state, a province of a nation state, etc). If the area currently lacks a legal definition, when was it defined and by whom?
The project covers the island of Ireland. Ireland as a whole has no legal status. However, the Republic of Ireland is a nation state and Northern Ireland is province of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Q. Does the project aim to: (a) Reconstruct boundaries at a single date; (b) Reconstruct boundaries at a series of dates; (c) Construct a continuous record of changing boundaries over a period?
The main aim of the project was to create a statistical database mainly from census data. Very much a subsidiary aim was to allow data to be mapped, by digitising boundaries for a few fixed dates.
Q. What is the earliest date covered by the project?
The earliest statistical data is for 1821. County boundary data covers the whole period of the project.
Q. What is the latest date covered by the project?
The latest statistical data is for 1961.
Q. What systems of units are included? (NB list ALL the types of unit included)
Mapping is possible of baronies, poor law unions and counties. Statistical data are available for these units and electoral divisions, county districts and county boroughs.
Q. What is the project's final product?
The main final product is a set of statistical datasets together with some boundary data files stored in electronic format at the ESRC Data Archive at the University of Essex.
Q. What other publications has your project produced?
In addition, a paper atlas charting the progress of the Irish Famine has been published and a subset of the data have been read into the educational software SECOS. A few methodological papers have also been published in journals.
Q. What base map is/was used to record the information? When was it created, and by whom? Is it published or in an archive?
For county and barony coverages, single-sheet, nineteenth century Irish Ordnance Survey maps were used for digitisation. These were derived from the one and six inch Ordnance Survey Series by Ordnance Survey themselves. Poor law union maps were based on a hand-drawn map obtained from an academic in Dublin.
Q. What scale was this base map on?
The poor law union did not have a scale. The county and barony maps had a scale of 10 miles to 1 inch.
Q. If the base map was not already in digital form and your project created a digital version, how was this done?
Digitisation took place within the University using the software DigitII for Windows.
Q. If your project constructed a record of boundary CHANGES, what sources of information were used? How was this information gathered?
The project only created snapshot views.
Q. What other maps besides the base map were used? When were they created, and by whom? What scale were they on? What boundaries did they show? How reliable are they?
None.
Q. Did your project make any use of DESCRIPTIONS of boundaries? Who created these? Where are they preserved? What problems did you have converting this information into lines on maps?
No.
Q. Please give full publication details (author(s), title, place of publication, date of publication).
Liam Kennedy, Paul S. Ell, E.M. Crawford, L.A. Clarkson, Mapping the Great Irish Famine, An survey of the famine decades, Four Courts Press, ISBN 1 85182 353 0, 1999.
Q. What scale(s) are the published maps on?
No set scale.
Q. What boundaries do they show? (i.e. what geographical units)
Counties, poor law unions and baronies.
Q. Do they try to show boundary changes over time? If yes, HOW do they show changing boundaries?
No. Generally the statistical data have been recast to a standardised set of boundaries. In a few instances maps with boundaries at a specific point in time have been produced such as 1841 and 1851.
Q. What software was used?
ARCINFO and ARCVIEW. Ingres stores the statistical database.
Q. What were your reasons for your choice of software? If you started again now, would you use the same software?
A University site licence was available together with technical support from the University Computer Centre.
Q. Describe the data files making up the final system: Are they a standard GIS file format? If not, where can detailed documentation be found?
The files are in ARCINFO standard format.
Q. What map projection is used?
No standard projection was used.
Q. Assess the overall accuracy of your digital mapping.
Whilst the digitised boundaries are suitable for basic visualisations, such as a paper atlas, the nature of the source material, and the lack of an established projection, means that they could not be considered to be highly accurate.
Q. From your existing experience, what methodological recommendations do you have for a larger collaborative project?
I would consider it important to work to common standards both in terms of the boundaries being digitised, ensuring that they were for similar sorts of units, and in terms of the software used.
Q. If the end-product is neither a traditional publication or a GIS, please describe it?
Some of the data and associated boundary files are available through the front-end software SECOS produced by Statistics for Education Limited.
Q. Whatever the resource your project has actually created, and
in the light of your experience with the project, what
form of output SHOULD a new project have?
There should be three basic outputs. First, a traditional paper atlas. Second, an electronic atlas. Third, and possibly linked to the second, a set of electronic resources in accessible formats for the academic community to use.
Q. What place-names are built-in to your mapping? Is each point/area (node/polgon) labelled with a single name, or is there some system for linking to different versions of names?
We have used a point/area labelling system. We have a coding system for each placename. The code links to a file which gives the full placename and the dates at which the unit existed.
Q. Does the history/linguistic geography of your area raise special problems with naming places?
Some places have an English name, normally in common parlance, and an Irish name, normally rarely used but mentioned occasionally (but not the census) in official documents.
Q. What sources have you used to research place- and area-names for use in your system?
Placenames have been based on the names as they appear in the census.
Q. Are there any quite separate projects concerned with the history of place names or of administrative hierarchies in your area? If so, please give details? Are they using computers? Are they aiming to make their results available on-line?
Yes, the Northern Ireland Placenames Project, based in the Department of Celtic Studies at the Queen’s University of Belfast has grant funding to create an electronic database of placenames in Northern Ireland.
Q. Was the GIS/digital resource constructed for use by its creators ONLY, or was it intended for wider use?
The GIS was constructed for use by the creators only. The statistical database was created for the whole academic community.
Q. Are you willing to make it available for use by others?
Yes.
Q. Are you willing to make it available for free, or for distribution costs only? If not, what plans have you for commercial distribution?
Free, except for distribution costs.
Q. Is the resource available NOW? If so, how and from where?
The data are available are available from the ESRC Data Archive.
Q. Are there any limitations on access?
There are some copyright restrictions, and data are only available to academics in the United Kingdom.
Q. What file format or file formats is the resource available in?
ASCII.
Q. If the resource is available from the researcher/project that created it, what plans are there for distribution after the project ends/the researcher retires?
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Q. What plans are there for updating the data files for use with more recent versions of software?
This is the responsibility of the Data Archive.
Q. What plans are there for updating the data files to include the results of more recent historical research?
None.
Q. Do you own all intellectual property rights in the resource created by your project? If not, what other rights exist, and who do they belong to? What limitations have they imposed?
Intellectual property rights are owned by the principal researchers and the management committee.
Q. How have Intellectual Property Rights issues limited your project?
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© Paul Ell (Belfast, May 2000)