Throughout its existence, principally through the efforts of Des Cowman, Alastair Lings and Paul Rondelez, the Mining Heritage Trust of Ireland accumulated knowledge of any published material relating to Irish mines and mining. This bibliography lists all known Irish mining references over the past forty years in journals, magazines and research collections. It does not include dedicated studies or monographs, nor newspaper items (a list of newspaper items can be found in the MHTI archive). The 1955 start-date date is because earlier references are quite comprehensively listed in Hayes’ Sources for the History of Irish Civilisation, Vol. 7, Massachusetts, 1970.
Links
The following list of links [checked in August 2019] includes many mining heritage enterprises and visitor attractions in Ireland that MHTI has visited, assisted or worked with in various ways. All are recommended as places to learn much more about the reality of mining and the lives of miners. Other links are to significant archives of mining history data or to public records that include mining heritage material. Other sites are included to address specific research or other community projects that document and present important mining heritage stories.
Archives
The MHTI accumulated an effective archive of varied materials during its existence. This included: photographs and videos of fieldtrips and events; books, pamphlets and ephemera on Irish mining; mining company reports; film reels; mine plans and miscellaneous paper records. Most of this has transferred, along with the organisation’s own records (minutes, accounts, correspondence) to the Natural History Museum within the National Museum of Ireland. It is planned to add organisational records to this website in the future, but the archive is available to consult by appointment through naturalhistory@museum.ie .
Exhibitions
In the 1990s the MHTI produced some temporary exhibitions which were presented in the public Customer Centre in the Geological Survey of Ireland and elsewhere. The text and image panels for these exhibitions are made available here as a record and a possible resource for research.
Mining through the Millennia
The mining heritage of Wicklow [in partnership with the Wicklow County Council Heritage Officer, Deirdre Burns]
Lead Mining: lives and landscapes [on the Newtownards mines in Co. Down]
