'New lease of life' - Project digitises archive documents
Since it was launched three years ago, the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland has been tracking down copies of documents lost in the blaze from archives across the globe.
Seventy-five institutions in Ireland and abroad have contributed digital images of transcripts and duplicates of documents that were destroyed when the Public Record Office was burned to the ground.
The documents are now available online as part of the project led by Trinity College Dublin and supported by the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport.
The 60,000 names of Irish families from a number of censuses - from the 1800s - were painstakingly compiled from transcriptions of documents in the National Archives of Ireland and Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.
Among them are extracts from the journals of two genealogists, who copied the censuses as part of their work.
Dr Brian Gurrin of Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland, who is also a population and census specialist, said they reveal the ordinary lives of people in the decades before and after the Great Famine.
Dr Gurrin said: "When the Record Office was destroyed the personal notes of those genealogists and records agents suddenly became the only census records that were surviving or were available.
"So many of those genealogists submitted their personal notes into the Public Record Office after it was re-established after the destruction."
He said those collections have been retained in the National Archives and "they're available to the public but they're very difficult to access because they're not really catalogued in any great way".
Dr Gurrin said census information "is scattered throughout the collections", adding it "can be very difficult to access".
"So, what the Virtual Record Treasury project has been doing is going in and accessing those individual notebooks and individual pages, looking through them, trying to find census material that was transcribed and is now destroyed," he said.
"This is the first time it's all been in one place," he added.
He said the census details provide some "gems" of information about Irish lives, including the size of families, the occupations of women aswell as colourful notes of some census entries.
He said: "One genealogist, Gertrude Thrift, who transcribed many thousands of names from the census, transcribed material from Carrickmacross from Humphrey Evans who was the agent to Lord Shirley.
"He put a little note against the transcription in the original volume, which is now destroyed, but Gertrude conveniently transcribed a note for us and what it basically says is 'that Humphrey Everett when I asked him his age and the ages of his daughters, he refused to give me the information and chased me away'."
Dr Gurrin said another interesting insight comes from Philip Crossley, a genealogist.
"He notes John Morriss, who owned a hotel in Headford in Co Galway, describes his eldest son as his son and heir and in the occupation," he said.
"He puts down 'walking about', which seems to express some of the frustration that he felt at his son who wasn't pulling his weight in the business," he added.
Documents telling the story of the 1798 Rebellion, life in Anglo-Norman Ireland from the 1100s to the 1500s and State Papers from 1660 to 1720 that document the governing Ireland following Cromwell's death are now also online.
Ciarán Wallace, Deputy Director of Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland, said the documents have come from all corners of the globe.
Mr Wallace said: "All the originals are lost, but these duplicate documents are from London, from Belfast, from across Ireland, north and south, from North America.
"We got records from Australia. Basically, it's like a documentary diaspora. Wherever the Irish went, the records went with them and very often, wherever the English went, Irish records went with them as well."
He said the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland now have "75 archives and libraries who share their records with us and share their expertise with us".
He added that sometimes the records are "already digitised, and other times, we can identify a record and say that's really significant, and we'll arrange to have it digitised and then bring it onto the virtual treasury".
"The Norman era papers, the Medieval era papers, some of those on the face of it, sound quite dull," he said.
"They're Exchequer records like taxation records, but in those taxation records you see people who are paying their taxes, disputing their taxes, who are paying fees and fines for inheriting land, who are writing to appeal about ownership of land," he added.
"You have women and men disputing with the Government."
Mr Wallace said when the documents move into the Cromwellian era, "the State Papers Ireland collection from the National Archives UK, we've nearly 28,000 pages of records from the collection".
"They are the view from London, looking at Ireland and trying to decide how to govern this colony and you have people again fighting over land ownership, a constant theme of Irish records and intelligence gathering of suspect people," he said.
Mr Wallace said there is "an amazing story" of a letter seized in the 1660s written in Irish and "the local government official who gets it can't understand the Irish and he tries to get it translated in the locality and nobody would translate it".
He continued: "So he's actually panicking, saying 'is this some secret code about another rebellion?'
"In fact, when they do get it translated, it is the Franciscans talking about reorganising the Franciscan Order in Ireland because Cromwell is gone.
"This letter ends up on an intelligence file in London and now it's available in Australia for people to see.
"We can look and try our hand at reading 17th century Irish."
Zoe Reid, Keeper of the National Archives of Ireland, said the project makes documents that have been sitting in archives for decades accessible to new audiences.
She said the National Archives has a collection of over 60 million records, adding "our role is to preserve, collect and maintain those records for public access".
"What's really exciting about this project is that we're bringing our archival knowledge and expertise along with the historians and their knowledge," she said.
"We're bringing the two together and we're learning more about our collections, and we're making our collections even more understandable and accessible for people, and we're bringing them to new audiences and giving them a new lease of life," she added.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RTÉ News
8 hours ago
- RTÉ News
The teachers who go beyond the extra mile for their students
Analysis: As Irish teachers prepare to go back to work, many of their peers worldwide continue to work in unfamiliar, challenging and dangerous settings Teachers in this part of the world are marking the countdown to a new year. Elsewhere in the world though, our teaching colleagues are working to different rhythms and in more unfamiliar and challenging settings. As we open our new planners, weigh up the merits of our timetables, look forward to meeting our students and brace ourselves for what is an all-consuming and demanding annual rhythm, this is a salute to those of us who go the extra mile for students. We know that teachers work in prisons, hospitals and refugee camps. By contrast, they are also work in international schools, on film sets and as jet-setting tutors to rich families. They have also taught in caves and mountain-tops with hazardous ascents and in far-flung valleys. Digital learning and distance education notwithstanding, teachers are still physically present and working in remote geographical locations. Some of these are accessible only by boat or plane and occasionally require an arduous journey across challenging terrain for pupils and staff alike. Solar-powered boat schools in Bangladesh allow children affected by climate change-induced flooding to continue their education, despite environmental disruption. The floating schools dock at various locations until all the charges are aboard and seated in their internet-equipped classrooms. Some of the boats even contain mini-playgrounds, allowing the kids to play as well as learn. Outside of the traditional classroom, other teachers educate underprivileged students on railway platforms, in India, for example, or as asylum-seeking teachers themselves, in border-located initiatives, like the Mexican 'Sidewalk School '. This school empowers children of migrant families living in 'tent cities' and seeking resettlement in the US to navigate their new environment with improved English-language and social skills. Financial considerations and the technological developments of recent decades have led to the contemporary dominance of online distance learning. The enduring global model of the rural one-teacher school is virtually obsolete. Deborah Mueller is a language teacher in Australia with a 35-year career in distance learning. From RTÉ Radio 1's Drivetime, why are some schools facing teacher shortages this September? "Back in the day, 25 or 30 years ago, we used to send students work by mail and they'd record their speaking practice on a cassette and then we'd give feedback on the same cassette and send it back. Then we got telephones, so were able to have phone lessons. Then came video-conferencing, then Zoom, now Teams. "I have flown to visit my students in their country towns several times since the course was introduced at my school, but it's quite expensive (plane flights, hire car, hotel overnight, food allowance), so it no longer happens." Some teaching locations, including far-flung rural sites in the Australian outback, or the boarding schools of the Sámi in the far north of Sweden and refugee camps, amongst others, require a deliberate, critical, pedagogical approach. The students' physical and social environment is centred in a culturally-responsive way. Indigenous teachers and learners, for instance, value the inclusion of outdoor learning, and of storytelling. From ABC Australia, Gazan children are learning in makeshift classrooms after their schools were destroyed in Israeli attacks These are techniques which modify a universalizing curriculum through acknowledgement of local cultural and seasonal practices and attitudes to the surrounding natural environment. Irish educators are also keen to implement this kind of education. Increasingly, governments and NGOs are endeavouring to recruit and better qualify indigenous and local teachers, whose linguistic ability and cultural insight better place them to engage with the pupils and locations in which they work. But this policy approach runs parallel to a powerfully ascendant managerialist approach to education worldwide. The relative geographic isolation in which some of the teachers work, though, can also afford them a liberating autonomy from the relatively inflexible, performance-driven orientation of more 'mainstream' schools and allow them to draw on their own experience and judgement to include and validate local forms of knowledge. Teachers in refugee camps in Sudan, Kenya, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Gaza and elsewhere are often themselves displaced and may face daily threats of violence. Accessing school buildings, if they haven't been destroyed, can involve a perilous journey. Online education is not always possible either, as electricity, internet and device supply may be limited. UNRWA's 450 Temporary Learning Spaces in Gaza have delivered education and offered recreational activities to thousands of Gazan children, in addition to its provision of psychosocial support to traumatised adults and children. In something of a new horizons flex, some teachers have even gone extra-terrestrial, including those former teachers re-trained as astronaut-educators. Other teachers are specialising as STEM space educators, refining their knowledge through sub-orbital flights and the study of astronautics.
Irish Examiner
13 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Waterford neighbours appeal against Dyson's planned helipad
Waterford neighbours of billionaire James Dyson have appealed against his plans to build a helipad on his estate. An appeal has been lodged against a decision that permitted the inventor, known for founding the Dyson company, which sells bagless vacuum cleaners among other items, to construct a helicopter landing zone at his expansive Ballynatray House estate near the River Blackwater, near the Cork-Waterford border. The original planning application was submitted by estate manager Christopher Nicholson. Those who submitted proposals against the construction during the initial planning process expressed concern that 'up to 50 helicopter landings a year' would have an adverse affect to the wildlife on the river and the local population, saying the Blackwater is an unspoiled haven', which is 'something that should be preserved and cherished' and not 'spoiled with the weekly noise of a helicopter'. One objector said a helicopter could be heard from miles around and would have a 'disturbing influence' on the wildlife in the area, described as being 'a sanctuary due to the lack of interference from humans'. A neighbour wrote to the Council: 'It is difficult in today's world to find such areas and I feel strongly that for the sake of someone's convenience, an area of natural beauty and importance will be subjected to unnecessary disturbance.' The council was told that the site is an important nesting site for herons, egrets, cormorants and birds of prey such as sparrowhawks, owls and buzzards. Other birds sighted include sea eagle, osprey and red kite. The shoreline is inhabited by curlew, ducks and whooper swans, the submitter wrote, along with red squirrels, otters, badgers, foxes, fallow deer and stoats. An objection to the plan said that the helicopter would fundamentally alter the natural soundscape and peaceful aural environment of the area, 'replacing birdsong and the sounds of nature with the intrusive noise of rotor blades'. A different objection to the original planning submission described the Blackwater River and its surrounds as a 'sensitive area continually under attack' from housing, building, boats, jet-skis 'and now helicopters'. He said there were more than a dozen other houses in the area that could accommodate a helipad, adding: 'I am sure the applicant wouldn't be happy if another 12 helicopters flew over Ballynatray each day.' Waterford Council granted permission for the helipad to be built under certain conditions. However, neighbours have filed an appeal with the Irish planning authority An Coimisiun Pleanala and a decision is due by November 26.
Irish Times
18 hours ago
- Irish Times
Small fraction of applicants to Defective Concrete Block Scheme have had their homes fixed
Just 7 per cent of applicants to the Defective Concrete Block Scheme have had their homes remediated in the five years since the scheme opened, new records show. Some 220 homeowners have had their remediation works completed under the scheme out of a total of 2,870 applications since it opened in June 2020, according to figures released by the Department of Housing up to the end of July 2025 show. A further 977 applicants have issued notices to commence work. The Defective Concrete Block grant scheme helps homeowners to repair or rebuild their homes where significant damage has been caused by the presence of pyrite or mica in the blocks used to build it. READ MORE These minerals cause cracks and other defects to appear in the homes which have been built with blocks from certain quarries. The scheme was originally opened in June 2020 and covered counties Mayo and Donegal , with owners able to claim 90 per cent of a maximum rebuild cost of €247,500. Campaigners argued this left a huge gap in funding the actual cost of rebuilding their homes. Dr Martina Cleary, founder of the Clare Pyrite Action Group and a lecturer at the Technological University of the Shannon, says the new scheme has 'a lot of problems'. Dr Martina Cleary's home under demolition near Crusheen, Co Clare. Photograph: Eamon Ward 'The first problem is you need an awful lot of money to start it,' she says, giving the example of her own home outside Ennis which she has already spent €40,000 on. 'Then the grant itself is short. I have a small bungalow and the grant I got was €187,920. When you take out €30,000 for demolition and €10,000 for engineers, I have somewhere between €145,000 and €150,000 to rebuild my home,' Dr Cleary says. [ Donegal's Titanic: The sinking of a housing estate built on a peat bog Opens in new window ] In June 2023, an enhanced scheme opened for applications with homes in Clare and Limerick now included and the rebuild cost limit pushed up to €462,000. In October 2024, Co Sligo was also added. A total of €163 million has been paid out in grants so far, figures released by the Department of Housing in response to a parliamentary question from Sinn Féin's Eoin Ó'Broin show. These figures, accurate up to the end of June, show that out of the 2,796 applications to the scheme at that stage, 1,334 had met the damage threshold required to qualify for the grant. Some 54 applications were refused or withdrawn, while 27 did not meet the damage threshold. Since applications to the enhanced scheme opened there have been 164 applications in Co Clare, 64 in Co Limerick and three in Co Sligo. 'It will work for people who are wealthy, but it is inaccessible for people who are most at need.' Photograph: Eamon Ward Some 11 applicants have started work in Co Clare, with none on site yet in Limerick or Sligo. Homeowners in these counties say there are several difficulties with getting access to the enhanced scheme. Sinn Féin housing spokesman Mr Ó Broin says the latest figures show 'the defective concrete block scheme is not working for the vast majority of affected homeowners'. Some of the issues he points to are that several properties are being refused or delayed for long periods of time before final grants are awarded. 'Government must go back to the drawing board and introduce an end-to-end scheme run by the Pyrite Resolution Board to ensure 100 per cent redress for all impacted homeowners,' he says. Speaking of her own experience in Clare, Dr Cleary says she spoke to 14 builders and looked at every type of building method, but all quotes came in at between €230,000 and €300,000. While there is light at the end of the tunnel for Dr Cleary, it did not come without significant stress over the last five years since realising her home was crumbling. [ 'I grew up in an apartment in another country. I bought an apartment in Dublin and had to get out after a year' Opens in new window ] 'It consumes your life trying to fix it,' says Dr Martina Cleary. Photograph: Eamon Ward 'It was extremely traumatic, extremely shocking to realise I was in that situation,' she says. 'I remember sitting in the house and I could actually hear the blocks cracking. I could hear the roof rafters moving when it got windy and you're awake at night, terrified,' she says. 'It's just like a train crash in slow motion, it consumes your life trying to fix it.' 'The scheme will work for people that have at least €100,000 to €150,000 to put into a house. It will work for people who are wealthy, but it is inaccessible for people who are most at need,' Dr Cleary says. When asked about the latest figures, the Department of Housing pointed to the fact that 220 homes had been completed and 977 had issued notices to commence work, representing 41 per cent of applications. The Department said in a statement that '2024 was the first full year of the current DCB grant scheme and it is evident from the large number of commencement notices that the scheme is now ramping up'.
