Big Read: Two Historical Tipperary newspapers digitised and why that matters

Last week, the British Newspaper Archive added two historic Tipperary titles to its database. 

The County Tipperary Independent was first published in 1880 and ceased publication in 1882. 

The Tipperary Free Press ran from 1826 to 1881, and it was a liberal and nationalist paper. 

It became part of The County Tipperary Independent in 1881. 

The County Tipperary Independent and Tipperary Free Press are not available in the Irish Newspaper Archives.

However,  the National Library of Ireland holds a subscription for the British Newspaper Archives, and the public can make an appointment to see them through the NLI website. 

Subscriptions to the BNA are also available on their website.

The British Newspaper Archives is a collaboration between the British Library and FindMyPast. 

They scan original pages or microfilm, which are available to the public online. 

Included in the British Newspaper Archive collections are Irish titles. 

Why historical newspapers matter

To understand the importance of historical newspapers, the Tipperary Star spoke to librarians Mary Guinan Darmody and Jane Bulfin at Tipperary Studies. 

They say newspapers are primary sources, and the information in them can help us understand an area's social or political history. 

Mary and Jane say they are especially important in the context of the decade of centenaries. 

However, they are less helpful when tracing family histories unless the research topic was a very well known person or to find when a property changed hands. 

Unlike today's newspapers, ordinary people did not appear in the newspaper with deaths and births only announced by public figures.  

"Not unless you were in Burke's Peerage or something or you came up for transport or a court case, but even then, they only gave the first name and the general area. You can imagine a Kennedy from Lorrha; that's not going to tell you anything," said Jane. 

"So, you won't find as much local news in a newspaper in the 19th century as you would in a newspaper today," said Mary. 

Mary and Jane say the people in the 19th century loved crime reports, so the papers would have reported on the poor law unions. 

Both the County Tipperary Independent and the Tipperary Free Press were published in Clonmel. 

However, according to Mary, the county was only divided into North and South in 1838, 

Before this, all courts were held in Clonmel. 

"They would have been useful for all sorts of court cases in both parts of the county. After 1938 the county was divided, and so Nenagh was the town for North Tipp and Clonmel for South Tipp, so it wasn't as helpful for that.

But regarding the poor law unions, I would say still carry the poor law unions," said Mary.

They also published when landlords were in residence, cricket scores and the start of the fox-hunting season. 

The County Tipperary Independent even published Waterford news. 

They say that digitised newspapers mean people have access from anywhere in the world and specific information is much easier to find. 

Before digitisation, anybody who would like to see older papers would have to view them through a microfilm viewer, damaging the paper. 

"So, as well as conservation and ease of access, digitisation is the way to go," said Mary. 

"At the same time, I would not run down microfilm. Most of our papers are still on microfilm, and it's the only way you could access a paper up until now."

Tipperary Studies has 20 titles, all on microfilm with only three entirely digitised.

However, Jane says digitisation is expensive and time-consuming. 

Only three of the main titles in Tipperary have been fully digitised. 

Those are the Tipperary Star, the Nationalist and the Nenagh Guardian. 

Mary and Jane say the newspaper collection is the most used collection at Tipperary Studies. 

"They are really important for giving context to historians, or someone says they are looking for pre-famine records of their family, you can't, in general, give them a lot, but they do like to get the context, so if you look at what was happening in the area, they can actually be happy with that sometimes, "said Jane. 

Mary and Jane say subscriptions can be costly, but collections can be accessed free from the library. 

"I think digitisation really improves access, and we all learned that in lockdown."

"Newspapers are really important whether you are looking for an auction report, a family history report, a parish history of GAA history; it covers everything, it really does," said Mary.

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