In September 2023, the UK Parliamentary Archives hosted an event to mark their collaboration with the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland. In this blog, our Public Engagement Assistant, Kirsty O’Rourke, reflects on the event.
To mark the collaboration between the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland and the UK Parliamentary Archives, last month the UK Parliamentary Archives hosted an event to discuss the importance of sharing knowledge and collections as a way to digitally recreate and reconnect archives lost in disasters. The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland is a collaborative project led by researchers at Trinity College Dublin, to digitally recreate the Public Record Office of Ireland 1867-1922 that was destroyed in June 1922, in the opening engagement of the Irish Civil War.
This event began with Adrian Brown, Director of the UK Parliamentary Archives, discussing the importance of this project in democratising access to historical records. The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland is a freely and permanently available online open-access resource to all those interested in Ireland’s history and its international links. As former Taoiseach and current Tánaiste Micheál Martin, TD, explained,
The Beyond 2022 Project is a landmark initiative, not just because of what it will achieve through ground-breaking technology, but because of its collaborative approach. It allows for the re-exploration of the history of our island and the links forged over centuries with our neighbours.
By 2022, the project had five core partners and over seventy archives, libraries, and learned societies around the world collaborating to compile records covering seven centuries of Irish history. These records are free and open access to all which, as Adrian Brown stated, means that this project not only tells important stories, but it allows everyone to tell their own story, too. The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland helps researchers, both novice and expert, with their work in multiple ways. It displays ‘Curated Collections’ of sources that combine digitised materials with detailed descriptions from archival partners. It also has a section on ‘Gold Seams’ research which are full-scale reconstructions of entire series of archives that had previously been destroyed and this section also includes exploration tools to help researchers. And, the website includes a section on ‘Research Strands’ that showcases the latest discoveries and research to come from this collection.
Dr Ciaran Wallace, the Deputy Director of the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland then reflected on the history of the Public Record Office of Ireland 1867-1922 and its ultimate destruction. The repository itself was designed to keep the archival documents safe; it had big windows to let in light, no gas lamps, and a fire break between the admin block and where the records were held to limit any risk of fire damage. Unfortunately, even with these measures in place the Public Record Office of Ireland was destroyed in 1922 on the outbreak of the Irish Civil War.
The Civil War was between those for the Anglo-Irish treaty and those who opposed it, and its opening engagement was the ‘Battle of the Four Courts’. Prior to the outbreak of the war, the Anti-Treaty garrison had been occupying the Four Courts and Public Record Office. In June 1922, the Pro-Treaty side surrounded the Four Courts complex and threatened the Anti-Treaty side that they would open fire if they did not evacuate the building. The Anti-Treaty side did not evacuate, and the battle began. After two days of fighting, there was an explosion in the Four Courts complex which destroyed the eastern wall of the Record Treasury of the Public Record Office, and a fire broke out. Most of the documents held in the repository quickly caught on fire and seven centuries of Ireland’s historical records were destroyed in a few hours. It has been claimed as one of the greatest cultural tragedies of the war.
In 1922, the Record Treasury contained 100,000 square feet of archival shelving organised into 4,500 series of records accumulated over 7 centuries. It was destroyed in 1 afternoon.
Dr Ciaran Wallace explained that the fire break designed to save the Record Treasury worked, but in reverse, and instead saved the admin block. While not what was intended, this meant that many catalogues and books that held descriptions and summaries for the records were saved from the flames. These summaries were the starting point for the creation of the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland.
Not only were the documents saved from the admin block, but two hundred pieces of archival documents were saved from the rubble. The project has created a ‘Virtual Treasury Tour’ that allows you to walk around the reconstructed building. You can find out information about the destruction of the archives, who worked there, and even find some original pages that were salvaged.
These discussions were followed by Dr David Brown, Senior Researcher and Archival Discovery Lead, Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland, who discussed his paper on ‘Minutes of the Committee of the Lords and Commons for Irish Affairs, 1642-3’ and Dr Liz Hallam Smith, an Historical Research Consultant and Honorary Research Professor at the University of York, who compared the fire and loss of archival documents of the Public Record Office of Ireland to the 1834 fire that destroyed the Palace of Westminster.
Each speaker explained why archives matter today and reinforced the importance of digitisation and democratisation of an archive to allow multiple audiences to tell their own stories. The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland is one such project that has allowed this democratisation of an archive to take place. If you want to be able to tell your own stories, see the stories that others have begun to tell, or even take a virtual tour of an archive that was destroyed, then you can visit the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland website, here: https://virtualtreasury.ie/
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