Info

Date: October 4, 2021

Time: 6.30pm - 8.30pm

Duration: 3 Weeks

Level: Beginner | Emerging | Professional Development |

Cost: €96 (€87 Members)

All Irish Writers Centre remote courses take place on Irish Standard Time (GMT)

Course Summary:

This is the age of the memoir. More and more writers are turning to their own personal narratives and those of their ancestors to find the material they hope to weave into the fabric of their writing. This course will help the writer identify and explore sources of information that will be useful to them in their memoir writing projects including genealogical sources, archives, databases, and other relevant authorities, and how to effectively and efficiently search and utilise those sources. The workshop includes a guide to the use of images and an examination of copyright, as well as practical advice regarding storing and accessing that research.

With an emphasis on online research (though including a guide to in-person explorations), the course introduces links to databases and other online sources. It also seeks to show how information gathering can be structured and stored in useful and simple methods for ease of access. It also presents guidelines to help evaluate the quality of research.


Course Outline:

The workshop is divided into 3 sections:

  • Research sources and guides with an emphasis on genealogy
  • Search techniques: How to search efficiently and effectively
  • Storing and accessing your research

Participants will be set brief research projects that would be related to their own specific areas of interest.


Course Outcomes:

On completion of this course the participants will have a good understanding of the main and best genealogical resources available to them for the purposes of researching their memoirs. They will also have acquired improved and enhanced research techniques and discovered new and free sources of reliable sources of information, as well as the ability to identify the quality of those sources. In addition course participants will have an understanding of copyright as related to the use of their research, including the use of images. Finally, participants will have the tools to structure , store, and access their research.


Kevin Connolly is the author of Yeats and Sligo, Brandon Books, 2010 and Arise and Go: W.B. Yeats and the People and Places that Inspired Him, O’Brien Press, 2019. His writings have been published in journals and newspapers both in Ireland and abroad. He possesses a Masters Degree in Library Science with an emphasis on academic research. Kevin was the founder and owner of The Winding Stair Bookshops and Cafés in Dublin and Sligo (1982-2006). He lives in rural Sligo.