Welcome to the Irish Regiments in France Database

This Irish regiments in France database forms part of a strategic collaboration between NUI Maynooth, St. Patrick’s College, Drumcondra and Trinity College Dublin. The creation of the database, funded by the Higher Education Authority’s Programme for Research in Third-Level Institutions (cycles I and III), has involved a new search of military archives in France and Spain, and the results are now available in accessible interactive form for researchers. The first tranche relates to Irish soldiers in French service during the eighteenth century.

The information presented in this database was collected by Dr Colm Ó Conaill, PRTLI research fellow (TCD), under the auspices of the Irish Soldiers in French Service (1691-1791) Project, overseen by the Centre for Irish-Scottish Studies. Data collection was directed by Dr Ciaran Brady (TCD), Professor Louis M. Cullen (TCD), Professor David Dickson (TCD) and Dr Declan Downey (UCD) and was completed in the Service historique de la défense, Vincennes in 2003. In 2004 a protocol was signed between the project directors in TCD and The Irish in Europe Project, based in NUI Maynooth to process and host the data in electronic form. This operation was directed by Dr Thomas O’Connor (NUI Maynooth), Dr Mary Ann Lyons (St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, DCU) and Dr John Keating (NUI Maynooth) and completed in October 2006 with the technical assistance of Mr Patrick Maher (NUI Maynooth)

Introducing Database Inspectors

Visitors to the Irish in Europe website may access the databases using a variety of Database Inspectors. The Data Inspectors are in-page, interactive visual elements each providing a unique visualization of the XML (Extensible Markup Language) encoded data stored in the database. For example, the two Database Inspectors below are functionally equivalent - they both produce migration maps based on real-time queries in a graphical format. The underlying database associated with each instance of the inspector is different, however, but it would be a straightforward task to have a single Database Inspector accessing and visualising multiple databases simultaneously.

These Database Inspectors may be added to any web page, thereby providing real-time access to data where (and when) it is required, for example, in an online research publication, or in a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).

Access to the data in the Irish in Europe repository is centrally managed and organised using strict XML encoding mechanisms. The benefit to all is that new visual Database Inspectors created for one data set may be easily applied to all other conforming data representations. This approach and software development methodology reduces the overall effort associated with getting databases online, and maximises software reusability.

Irish Regiments in France Database Inspector

The Irish Regiments in France Database Inspector, included below, is a real-time, searchable interface to the data collected and organised, by Dr Colm Ó Conaill, PRTLI research fellow (TCD), under the auspices of the Irish Soldiers in French Service (1691-1791) Project, overseen by the Centre for Irish-Scottish Studies.

This propotype, provides the user with facilities to examine individual database entries and engage in data mining activities. This inspector uses the same database files as the graphical inspector described previously. It is infinitely customisable, and may be used to inspect other data sets with minimal changes. As part of our ongoing research into Database Inspector development for XML encoded data, we hope to arrive at a point where inspector functionality is encoded with the data and the Database Inspectors are automatically written by computer programs!