Irish newspaper archive access

limericklad87 · 19-02-2018 2:23pm #1

Hi Guys,
Does anyone know of any free access to newspaper archives going at the moment or soon. Primarily looking for access to the Limerick Leader newspapers. Any 24 access free trials upcoming etc.
Have emailed the local library also to see if they have them in a searchable format akin to Irish news archive etc,

On the search for old photos and articles related to a certain topic.

pinkypinky · 19-02-2018 3:06pm

Check if your county library has free access to it.

I know that Fingal does.

limericklad87 · 19-02-2018 3:07pm

Cheers.
As I said above just waiting on a reply now.
thanks

pinkypinky · 19-02-2018 3:16pm

Yes, but I meant whichever is the head library for your county, usually with the archive attached.

blue banana · 19-02-2018 5:15pm

The Limerick Leader (1905 - current) is available on Irish News Archive, so should be available in most Public Libraries as pinkypinky said.

limericklad87 · 19-02-2018 9:08pm

Thanks guys

mickmackey1 · 20-02-2018 5:59pm

Just a warning that the years 1971-1988 are not available.

L1011 · 20-02-2018 6:10pm

The INA website is incredibly slow and the OCR on older articles is really very poor so be prepared to be very patient and able to re-visit if doing it from a library.

On free weekends it's basically too slow to use

Hermy · 20-02-2018 7:13pm

L1011 wrote: »

The INA website is incredibly slow and the OCR on older articles is really very poor so be prepared to be very patient and able to re-visit if doing it from a library.

On free weekends it's basically too slow to use

It's ridiculous how slow it is at times. What's that about? Poor servers?

Not too long ago IGRS posted on Facebook about 'considerable' improvements to the site but I see no evidence of that.

It's a real pain as it's a brilliant resource otherwise.

:(

L1011 · 20-02-2018 7:40pm

Putting my tech hat on, I'd take a guess at database scalability - it was effectively an archive of INM papers when it launched and it now has many multiple of that in place. It can be very hard to make a system designed for one amount of data work with lots of times that amount of data. At least not without throwing huge financial resources at it.

tabbey · 20-02-2018 10:56pm

L1011 wrote: »

It can be very hard to make a system designed for one amount of data work with lots of times that amount of data. At least not without throwing huge financial resources at it.

This is the trouble, it is a victim of its own success, but has limited funds.

It varies also in different libraries. DCLA is my favourite library, because it has so much at hand on the shelves, but the computers are old and slow. At times on any day, INA is terribly slow in DCLA, but after about 1700, it usually speeds up.

I should probably mention it to the staff, but they are generally so good, I don't want to be too critical.

Hermy · 21-02-2018 12:11am

I've been using it at home for the past few months (got a good offer on 12 months sub last year) on a new PC with a decent internet connection and often as not I'll flick over to something else while I wait for it to complete a search it's that slow.

cat_r · 21-02-2018 9:24am

I find it's quicker if I just search one newspaper at a time. Just means I have to try and keep better research notes :-)
There was a 40% off offer at the Back To Our Past show at the weekend - don't know if it's still working but it's BTOP40.

L1011 · 21-02-2018 9:44am

I had to give up any attempt at looking for the common names in my tree, and for my non-genealogy work where I'm looking for terms like "public house" it's the Times or nothing really. I'd have an annual subscription if it was faster which unfortunately doesn't help in funding making it faster before that!

Hermy · 21-02-2018 10:19am

Another issue with the site is that you only get ten results at a time which really adds to the frustration.

pinkypinky · 21-02-2018 10:36am

I'm sure they're aware of the limitations of their site and hopefully working to address them. I don't think it's useful for us to keep moaning about it here though.

Hermy · 21-02-2018 12:03pm

I'm not moaning. It's a great resource but the speed of delivery is beyond a joke.
No other website that I use is that slow or even close.

Irish newspaper archive access

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