Monica Barnes
Question:94 Mrs. Barnes asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage Gaeltacht and the Islands the progress on the women's history project and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10937/00]
Written Answers. - Women's History Project.
The women's history project, funded by my Department, was established in 1997 to survey and record sources relevant to the history of women in Ireland.
Progress to date on the project has been substantial. In the autumn of 1999 volumes two and three of the Drennan-McTier letters were published. In association with the National Library of Ireland the women's history project published "If Ever You Go To Dublin Town", photographs by Elinor Wiltshire and a directory of sources for women's history in Ireland in CD-ROM form. Work on the files of the Department of the Taoiseach, which are in the custody of the national archives, continues. As of early April this year 667 boxes out of 1,400 had been examined and 10,000 entries have been made to the directory database.
Later this year, a calendar of the papers of the Ulster Women's Unionist Council is to be published by the project and the directory of sources for women's history is to made accessible to the public through the World-Wide Web. The project is also editing, with a view to publication in 2001, the diaries of Elizabeth Dillon, wife of the leader of the 19th century Irish Parliamentary party leader, John Dillon.