Ever thought about volunteering – well now you can do it virtually.

What better way to spend your time, if you’re finding yourself at a lose end during Lockdown. Check out the many volunteer opportunities available on websites such as I-VOL or Volunteer.ie. You can take part in important research, light up someone's day by writing letters to people in various care centres. Use your skills by doing some social media management for important support services. There’s so many different opportunities.

The Irish Genealogical Research society are looking for volunteers to help with creating hugely important databases of genealogically valuable records. More hands are always needed to move these projects along. Current projects include a Registry of Deeds and Early Irish marriages.

Transcribe a story in Irish or English from the Dúchas Schools Collection and discover traditional lore, crafts, customs and local history.

Help the National Biodiversity Data Centre with their new initiative ‘Backyard Biodiversity’, to record species found in gardens. The scheme seeks to obtain sightings of 20 recognisable species that can be found in urban and rural gardens. This is something that the whole family can get involved with.

Take part in the Be My Eyes project where every day, sighted volunteers lend their eyes to solve tasks big and small to help blind and low-vision people lead more independent lives. Be My Eyes is a free app that connects people for visual assistance through live video calls.

Count penguins in remote regions to help Oxford University, understand their lives and environment. Penguins are globally loved but under threat. Why are penguin populations are in decline? Help monitor penguins and answer this question.

The National Library of Ireland also need help with dating and providing information on images. They use ‘The Commons’ on Flickr to upload hundreds of photos, prints and manuscripts. The public are then invited to help date and provide information on the images, helping add to the National Library’s archive.

Read more and volunteer through the following sites;

https://www.i-vol.ie/advanced-search/

and

https://www.volunteer.ie/volunteers/microvolunteering/