Advanced technology has been summoned to the rescue of ancient Irish culture in one of the country's least known but most richly endowed heritage areas, on the north-west tip of Co Mayo.
A few local people, working with newly acquired computer and mapping skills - and with minimal finances - have produced a unique interactive CDROM celebrating the folklore, culture and magnificent coastal scenery of Dun Chaochain, a small Gaeltacht area which has so far escaped the depredations of mass tourism.
It takes a determined visitor to brave the Atlantic weather and press on across miles of desolate blanket bog to discover this remote corner of the ancient barony of Erris.
It is 42 miles west of Ballina, and 22 miles by road from the town of Belmullet. And its geographical isolation has helped preserve the region's natural character. The traveller Otway, who penetrated this fastness by boat and (with difficulty) on horseback waxed lyrical about its beauty. "Here you have the grandeur of Alps and ocean combined," he wrote in his volume, Erris and Tirawley, published in 1841. Lacking the native language, he was unable to fully appreciate the region's other priceless heritage, its wealth of Irish placenames, music and culture.
The multi-media CD-ROM, produced by two local co-op members, Mr Vincent McGrath and Ms Treasa Ni Ghearraigh, is the first stage in a proposed compendium of local folklore and landscape.
The bilingual introduction to Dun Chaochain includes pictures, songs, stories and over 1,500 placenames in Irish with English translations. It aims, according to Ms Ni Ghearraigh, to preserve the language and help develop cultural tourism on a limited scale.
The meticulous placename mapping undertaken by Vincent McGrath has covered, so far, 11 of the 28 townlands in the local Kilcommon parish, said to be the biggest in area in Ireland.
"We were really fortunate in that some of the older people here were able to pinpoint the exact locations to which the placenames applied," said Vincent. Both Vincent and Treasa had benefited from the skills of the EU-sponsored Euroform scheme in 1991. The CD-ROM was produced with the expertise of Mr Michael Curley, who runs a computer company in nearby Belmullet.
This impressive project was completed in eight months of intensive work funded by an £8,000 grant from the Heritage Council. Now the Dun Chaochain co-op is keen to extend the CD project to the whole parish over a two-year period.
It has applied to the EU's Department of Minority Languages for funding to carry this out as a pilot scheme. which would also provide a practical example to other small heritage communities of the potential involved in modern, multi-media information technology.
The local co-op has already published an elegant booklet guide to walks in the Dun Chaochain area, and details of this and of the new CD-ROM are available from Treasa Ni Ghearraigh at (097) 88082.