Browsing and searching the Collection
Two sub-collections of Bailiúchán Béaloidis Árann (BBÁ), featuring photographs and audio recordings gathered by the project, are published on this website. Both of these sub-collections can be browsed and their contents filtered according to a number of criteria. A small selection of videos donated to BBÁ is also published on a single page of the website. All website content is accessible via a text search engine and is linked, where appropriate, to a database of named persons. Each of these facilities is described below.
Photographs
This sub-collection contains several hundred photographs captured by BBÁ or collected by the project team from various sources. Each photograph has a unique archival reference number prefixed with the letters BBAG. The sub-collection contents are displayed across a number of pages. Use the right and left arrow buttons to navigate forwards and backwards, respectively, through the entries. To jump to a specific page, type a page number in the field enclosed by the right and left arrow buttons and press ENTER. Click on an individual photograph to display the entry in full.
The entries in the sub-collection may be filtered by various criteria using the controls on the left-hand side of the page (or via an expandable menu on mobile devices). These include:
- Archival reference — Filters the entries by a given archival reference. This does not need to be a complete number. For example, type 'BBAG.0002' and press ENTER to retrieve results including 'BBAG.00020', 'BBAG.00021', 'BBAG.00028', etc.
- Person — Filters the entries by association with a given person. This may include the photographer, a person visible in the photograph, or a person otherwise associated with the photograph. Click 'Select…' and choose the appropriate person from the list; you may also type a name to narrow the list of potential options.
- Location (Ireland) — Filters the entries by a given geographic location in Ireland. The placenames in this list are taken from the Placenames Database of Ireland (logainm.ie).
- Country — Filters the entries by a given country.
- Location (abroad) — Filters the entries by a given geographic location outside of Ireland. The placenames in this list are taken from the GeoNames database.
It is also possible to sort the entries using the options available under Listing order:
- Archival reference — By default, entries are displayed in order from lowest archival reference number (e.g. 'BBAG.00001') to highest.
- Date (earliest) — Entries with the earliest known capture date are displayed first.
- Date (latest) — Entries with the most recent known capture date are displayed first.
Tip: To jump directly to a particular photograph, from any section of the website, type its archival reference in the search box at the top of the page and press ENTER.
Keyboard shortcut: When viewing an individual photograph entry, press the SHIFT and O keys together to open the image in a special lightbox viewer.
Audio recordings
This sub-collection contains over 50 hours of audio recordings captured by BBÁ. Each recording has a unique archival reference number prefixed with the letters BBAF. The sub-collection contents are displayed across a number of pages. Use the right and left arrow buttons to navigate forwards and backwards, respectively, through the entries. To jump to a specific page, type a page number in the field enclosed by the right and left arrow buttons and press ENTER. Click on the 'More information' button to display the entry in full. You may also press the PLAY button to hear the recording without necessarily opening the entry—this allows you to listen as you continue browsing.
The entries in the sub-collection may be filtered by various criteria using the controls on the left-hand side of the page (or via an expandable menu on mobile devices). These include:
- Archival reference — Filters the entries by a given archival reference. This does not need to be a complete number. For example, type 'BBAF.0002' and press ENTER to retrieve results including 'BBAF.00020', 'BBAF.00021', 'BBAF.00028', etc.
- Person — Filters the entries by association with a given person. This may include the informant(s), the collector(s), or a person otherwise associated with the recording. Click 'Select…' and choose the appropriate person from the list; you may also type a name to narrow the list of potential options.
- Location (Ireland) — Filters the entries by a given geographic location in Ireland. The placenames in this list are taken from the Placenames Database of Ireland (logainm.ie).
- Language — Filters the entires by a given language. One or more languages may be heard in any given recording.
Complete audio transcriptions have been created for a number of entires. The Transcription status control allows you to display only transcribed or only untranscribed entries.
It is also possible to sort the entries using the options available under Listing order:
- Archival reference — By default, entries are displayed in order from lowest archival reference number (e.g. 'BBAF.00001') to highest.
- Date (earliest) — Entries with the earliest known capture date are displayed first.
- Date (latest) — Entries with the most recent known capture date are displayed first.
Tip: To jump directly to a particular recording, from any section of the website, type its archival reference in the search box at the top of the page and press ENTER.
Keyboard shortcut: When the audio player is open, press the spacebar to pause/play the current recording.
Video recordings
This page contains a selection of video recordings donated to BBÁ. Given the smaller quantity of entries available, filter and sort options are not provided. However, the metadata associated with each video are discoverable via the people and text search facilities on the website (see below).
Click on a given video to play. Videos may be expanded to fullscreen using the controls available on your device.
Tip: To jump directly to a particular video, from any section of the website, type its archival reference in the search box at the top of the page and press ENTER.
People
This facility makes it possible to find particular individuals among all of the available sub-collections. The complete list of persons is displayed across a number of pages. Use the right and left arrow buttons to navigate forwards and backwards, respectively, through the entries. To jump to a specific page, type a page number in the field enclosed by the right and left arrow buttons and press ENTER.
You can search for a particular name using the search box at the top of the page.
One or more buttons is displayed under the person's name in each entry, indicating the sub-collections which have entries associated with that person. A number alongside each button shows how many entries associated with that person exist in the specific sub-collection. Click on a button to bring you to the list of entries in the given sub-collection. Some entries may also display a button labelled dúchas.ie. In such cases, the National Folklore Collection (NFC) holds data associated with the person in their digitized archive at dúchas.ie. Clicking the link will take you to the NFC data.
The list of entries can be filtered by Occupation. Click 'Select…' and choose an occupation from the list; you may also type an occupation name to narrow the list of potential options.
It is also possible to sort the entries using the options available under Listing order:
- First name — By default, entries are displayed in alphabetical order according to the person's first name.
- Surname (ordinary form) — Entries are displayed in alphabetical order according to the person's surname. 'Ordinary form' refers to Irish-language surnames. In this case, surnames are ordered with respect to markers of gender and martial status, e.g. 'Ní Chonghaile' is given before 'Ó Conghaile'.
- Surname (bare form) — Entries are displayed in alphabetical order according to the person's surname. 'Bare form' refers to Irish-language surnames. In this case, the nominative case form of the surname minus all prefixes, articles and initial mutations is used when sorting, e.g. 'de Bhailís' (Bailís) is given before 'Breathnach' (Breathnach).
- Birth date (earliest) — Entries with the earliest known birth date are displayed first.
- Birth date (latest) — Entries with the most recent known birth date are displayed first.
The Name display order controls whether names are presented as 'Name Surname' (e.g. 'Breandán Ó hEithir') or 'Surname, Name' (e.g. 'Ó hEithir, Breandán'). It has no effect on the listing order of entries.
Text search
Use the search box, located at the top of every page on the website, to find entries or people which match one or more search terms. The count of results obtained in each sub-collection is displayed as part of the website navigation. You can clear the search box, and cancel any current search action, by pressing the 'X' beside the magnifying glass icon.
If you are already browsing photographs or audio recordings or people on the website when you perform a search, you will first be shown results from the current sub-collection. Otherwise, you will be first taken to the site section with the highest result count.
When you open a photographic or an audio entry returned as a result of a text search, the search terms are highlighted where they occur within the entry content. Exact terms matches are highlighted with a green background; words with a sand-coloured background match an inflected or variant form of a search term.
Keyboard shortcut: Pressing the CTRL and K keys (Cmd and K on Apple Mac devices) together will take you directly to the search box from anywhere in the website.
Search language
The Search language control is displayed when performing a text search. It is usually shown below the filter controls on the left-hand side of the page (or via an expandable menu on mobile devices). This allows you to specify the target language of the search terms and has a noticeable impact on the results obtained. For example, searching using the word 'light', while Irish is specified as the search language, will only return results which contain the exact term 'light'. On the other hand, performing the same search while English is specified as the search language will return results containing words such as 'lights', 'lighting', etc.
Advanced search syntax
It is possible to perform a more specific or specialised text search using the syntax described in the following table.
| Syntax | Explanation | Sample query | Examples of matching texts |
|---|---|---|---|
| abc | Find inflectional forms and variations of term 'abc' | teach an tsagairt | 'i dteach an tsagairt', 'ó theach an tsagairt', 'teach a raibh sagart paróiste ina chónaí ann' |
| "abc" | Find exact term 'abc' | creatlach "an bháid" | 'creatlach an bháid', 'chreatlach an bháid', 'i gcreatlach an bháid' |
| +abc | Find exact term 'abc' | bád +iascaigh | 'bád iascaigh', 'báid iascaigh', 'a bhád iascaigh' |
| -abc def | Find inflectional forms and variations of term 'def' but exclude texts containing all forms of 'abc'. | bád -currach | 'bád', 'báid', 'bád iascaigh', 'bád farantóireachta' |
| -"abc" def | Find inflectional forms and variations of term 'def' but exclude texts containing the exact term 'abc'. | light -"lights" | 'light', 'lighting' |
| [abc | def] | Find exact term 'abc' or exact term 'def' | ag féachaint [siar | amach | isteach] | 'ag féachaint siar', 'ag féachaint amach', 'ag féachaint isteach' |
| abc* | Find words that start with 'abc' | comhar* | 'comharchumann', 'comharsa', 'comharsana', 'comhartha' |
| {abc *1* def} | Find term 'abc' within 1-word proximity to term 'def'. 'abc' and 'def' must be single words. The number can be changed to vary the proximity. | {Maggie *2* Dhioráin} | 'Maggie Uí Dhioráin', 'Maggie Tom Uí Dhioráin' |
Listing order of results
It is not possible to use the listing order controls when performing a text search. This is because the search aims to return the texts that best match the query first in the listing order of search results. Search results are sorted according to a number of criteria including:
- Similarity between the search terms and the words in the text — Texts which contain the exact search terms or which contain the majority of the search terms are ranked higher.
- Frequency of the search terms in the text — Texts in which the search terms, in whole or in part, occur more frequently are ranked higher.
- Proximity of the search terms in the text — Texts in which the search terms, in whole or in part, occur with closer proximity to each other are ranked higher.