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The Journal
30-06-2025
- General
- The Journal
Over 175,000 historical records lost during 1922 Four Courts explosion recovered and put online
OVER 175,000 historical records which were lost in the 1922 explosion and fire which destroyed the Public Records Office in the Four Courts have been recovered and made available online. The records have been made freely available from today to mark the 103 rd anniversary of the Public Record Office explosion , which was located in the Four Courts. The records are available on the website of the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland and work to replace and digitise the more than 175,000 historical records involved more than 75 partner archives and libraries across Ireland and the word. The dome of the Four Courts on fire Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo Dr Ciarán Wallace, co-director of the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland, remarked that the team has found records in archives and libraries around Ireland, both north and south, and also around Britain and the world. Speaking to RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Wallace said: 'Wherever Irish people went, records seem to go. 'And English administrators who'd worked here might go back to England with the records that they had accumulated in their time here as senior officers in Ireland.' Wallace explained that the work involves examining the catalogues of its 75 partners and once the team recognises a name in the collections, they ask to see the papers of those donors. 'Suddenly, up comes records that are copies made before 1922, in the days before photocopiers and scanners, when copies are made longhand. 'So these are centuries of transcriptions that have been scattered all around the globe and on we're able to bring them back into one central location.' The records also includes 60,000 names from 19th century censuses, which were previously unknown or unavailable. When asked how the census material was fashioned together, Wallace praised the work of his colleague Dr Brian Gurrin. 'Before 1922, the census exists in the Public Record Office,' explained Wallace. Advertisement 'You could hire a genealogist to go into the archive and trace up your family history by hand. 'You then go off with your family history under your arm but when the genealogist retires or dies, their notes get left into the archive. 'It's finding those notes, sometimes scrawled and scribbled, taken from the census that was then burnt in 1922.' And when asked to pick out something from the more than 175,000 historical documents that fascinated him, Wallace pointed to a document in the medieval accounts from around 1284, of records of supplies going to build a king's castle in Roscommon. He also pointed to an Irish language letter from Co Donegal penned in around 1661. 'On the road between Donegal town and Barnesmore Gap in June 1661,' said Wallace, 'the local English authorities seized a letter which was written in Gaelic script. They couldn't interpret the letter or get anybody in the locality to interpret it. 'So they thought this was highly suspicious and they sent it down to Dublin for investigation and it then gets sent over to London.' When it was translated, it turned out to be a letter by the Franciscan Order. Wallace explained: 'Oliver Cromwell is dead, the new King has come in, and Franciscans are thinking, 'maybe we can get better dispensation under the new monarch coming in'. 'Of course, the English can't read this letter and they think it's something highly suspicious. 'It ends up on an intelligence file in London, where it has sat for over 400 years and is available online our website.' Meanwhile, the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland has over 350,000 historical records on its website, from medieval rolls to the pre-Famine census. 'There are portals, with one for medieval research, the 1798 Rebellion and a population portal,' said Wallace, who said that within these portals people will be able to easily search for the particular area of interest they have. Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
Irish Times
30-06-2025
- General
- Irish Times
Worldwide interest expected as 19th-century Irish census records recovered and put online
The fire that destroyed the Public Records Office during the Irish Civil War also destroyed 700 years worth of records. Chancery records detailing British rule in Ireland going back to the 14th century and grants of land by the crown along with thousands of wills, title deeds and parish registers were incinerated when a fire broke out in the grounds of the Four Courts, which held the PRO, on June 30th, 1922. By common consent the worst loss of all was the pre-famine 19th-century census records. In an act of unparalleled archival vandalism the British authorities had destroyed the 1861 and 1871 census records so that they could not be used for the 'gratification of curiosity'. The 1881 and 1891 censuses were pulped during the first World War because of the shortage of paper. The British saw the censuses as purely a numbers game, not a valuable archive for future research. That left the pre-famine censuses of 1821, 1831 and 1841 still intact, but these were almost entirely destroyed in the fire. READ MORE The Virtual Treasury project was set up to try to recover as many of the lost documents as possible. Hundreds of thousands of documents have been retrieved where copies have been found in archives elsewhere, but the census records were always the priority. Thanks to years of work on the part of Brian Gurrin, the treasury's population and census specialist, some 60,000 names and counting have been recovered from 19th-century censuses. Four volumes from the 1821 census survived the fire, including the entire records for the Aran Islands, and have been in the National Archives of Ireland since. The Aran Islands was entirely Irish-speaking at the time, but the names are all recorded in English. They were available previously on microfilm, but that necessitated a visit to the National Archives. 'Brian's detective work has given them a whole new lease of life,' said Zoë Reid, the keeper of manuscripts at the National Archives of Ireland. They have now been digitised. Other copies have been found from diligent genealogists who would copy census records for research purposes. 'We talk about 60,000 names, but there are many, many more to go in. We haven't finished the process,' said Mr Gurrin. Virtual Record Treasury co-director Ciarán Wallace added: 'When we go to county libraries as part of a roadshow, the first question is, 'have you found the census yet?'. We have put a huge effort into finding anything we can of the censuses,' he said All the census names have been looked at individually and entered by hand. No machine learning or AI was used. All the census data has been consolidated in the population portal. Everywhere that a name or names have been recovered is denoted with a pin where users can zoom in to reveal the details. The interest is not only within Ireland. Tens of millions of people, especially in the United States, are descended from 19th-century Irish emigrants. Half of all visitors to the virtual treasury come from abroad. The census records are part of 175,000 new historical records that will be available from Monday, June 30th, the 103rd anniversary of the Public Records fire. The project has been led by Trinity College Dublin and supported by the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport and the National Archives of Ireland. Also included in the release is the Age of Revolution portal which includes contemporary accounts from the Irish House of Commons about the American revolution and the 1798 rebellion, five million words of Anglo-Norman (1170-1500) Irish history translated into English and more than 10 million words on governing Ireland in the dramatic years following Cromwell's death. Virtual Record Treasury academic director Dr Peter Crooks described the recovery of 60,000 census names as a 'tremendous achievement. What we have uncovered after years of painstaking archival work will help families across the world trace their story deeper into the Irish past.' He added: 'The scale, scope and significance of these materials is remarkable. They will be of huge interest to anyone exploring Ireland's story as a global island.'
