The International Inventory of Musical Sources - Répertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM) was established in 1952 by the International Musicological Society and International Association of Music Libraries. In thirty-five countries around the world, non-profit RISM groups work to locate and catalogue all surviving manuscripts, printed scores, writings on music theory and libretti. They transmit the results to the RISM Zentralredaktion in Frankfurt, which then edits and publishes the entries. The resulting catalogues have become established as primary research tools for music, and are used worldwide by academics, students, performers and others to trace and identify music materials. The work of RISM Ireland is project-based, focusing on diverse areas of Irish musical life and individual institutional holdings. These projects highlight the numerous previously unknown-of, forgotten or thought-lost musical manuscripts and scores lying dormant in repositories throughout the island of Ireland and provide access to source documents invaluable to musicologists and performers.
In 2013, RISM Ireland launched an Irish-focused free-to-access database and website of pre-twentieth century musical materials held in repositories throughout the island of Ireland. Prior to this, Ireland’s contribution to the RISM project was historically linked with the work of RISM UK, with all Irish records incorporated within the RISM UK's free-to-access website. The Irish-focused RISM Ireland database and website was established by Dr Catherine Ferris (RFMI) with the generous assistance of Dr Laurent Pugin (Swiss RISM Office), Dr Sandra Tuppen and Richard Chesser (RISM (UK) Trust) and Eoin Kilfeather (DIT Digital Media Centre).
The first major research project published in the RISM Ireland database was 'The Mercer’s Hospital Music Collection', a project undertaken in collaboration with RISM Ireland and RISM UK and resulting from a research scholarship from the DIT Conservatory of Music & Drama awarded to Tríona O’Hanlon and supervised by Dr Kerry Houston to carry out doctoral research on the collection. Other projects include Dr Karol Mullaney-Dignam’s ‘Music in the Irish Country House’ and Dr Catherine Ferris’ ‘Music at the National Library of Ireland’.