Train kept a rollin'

Not a whole lot to report today. Another productive day at the archive. I was able to finish photographing everything I needed from the first box of ex-servicemen records. I'll try to move on to the second box tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll actually be splitting time between the National Archive and the Guinness Archive. I had an email when I got home from the Guinness archivist stating that they wouldn't be open at 9:30am as previously communicated, but tomorrow would open at 1pm. That kind of messes up my plan, but oh well. I'm sure I'll manage. I was able to look at some Taoiseach files, some of which might be of use and I'll plan to photograph them tomorrow. That way, in the very least, I'll get most, if not all of the small files out of the way, and can concentrate on the big boxes of ex-servicemen records. For not having very much on WWI, the National Archive has proved to be a worthwhile stop for me, at least it seems that way at the moment. I think I was told there are something around 12-13 boxes of the ex-servicemen records, which I doubt I'll get through on this trip. One of the archivists also told me they have a collection of WWI ex-servicemen's wills, but like the Defense Forces archive, they were temporarily unavailable. Apparently they plan to put them on CD and make them available to people. That would be a cost effective alternative than a return trip. So I'll keep my eyes out for those. All-in-all, it was a good day. Going through archives makes one feel more like an historian than going through newspapers on microfilm, which is more of a needle-in-a-haystack way of doing history. Someday, decades from now, everything will be fully digitized and searchable, until then we have microfilm apparently.

After the archives I decided to lay low for the evening. Now extra work tonight. I watched "The Commitments" which I brought with me - always a good flick. I also spent a good part of the evening talking with Carlo, my roommate from Italy. Interesting guy. I got an email from Katie, my fiancee, this morning that really made my day a few times over. She said that she went running with the dog, and when he stopped to relieve himself, instead of doing that he simply plopped down on the ground. The thought of this, and the look I know was on his face, made me laugh to myself a few times today. Oh Buca. I'm also trying to find a convenient time to go to Burdock's Fish & Chips. I was going to go tomorrow, but the time change at Guinness threw my timetables off. Perhaps I will go this weekend with Carlo. All for now. More tomorrow?