The following announcement was written by the Irish Genealogical Research Society:

The Society is launching a new database created from a card index compiled several decades ago by the now late Patrick Smythe-Wood. It notes biographical information from Irish, and a small number of Canadian, newspapers. 

Although the range of newspapers covers all of Ireland, the data tends to mainly represent the nine northern counties which form the province of Ulster: Antrim, Armagh, Cavan, Derry/Londonderry, Donegal, Down, Fermanagh, Monaghan, and Tyrone,

There are approximately 11,600 index records, referencing about 20,000 individuals. The earliest dates from 1772 and the latest 1900, though the majority fall into the period 1800 to 1860.  Patrick’s interest in the history of members of the Royal Irish Constabulary, military personnel, and other uniformed services (customs and excise officers for instance), is widely represented in this database.

Ian Alastair Patrick Smythe-Wood (1914-1997). was a distinguished genealogist who was elected a Fellow of the IGRS in 1993, just four years before his death. His father's family came from Bushmills in Co. Antrim. Patrick was known for his extensive work on parochial records, monumental inscriptions, Canadian families of Irish descent, Irish links with the Isle of Man, and Irish and Canadian newspapers. He went on to donate the results of most of his work to the Society and this latest launch by the IGRS represents the fruit of some of his work.

Non-members can access this database for free to check for the prevalence of particular fist name and surname combinations by clicking HERE. Logged-in members can access the full database through the UNIQUE RESOURCES page.

A typical entry in the database might note as much as an individual's name, address, spouse, parent(s), date/year of birth, death or marriage, religious denomination, and names of other family members and relations. 

Link to online news item: https://www.irishancestors.ie/smythe-wood-newspaper-database