Unlocking the Archives
A virtual research showcase and panel discussion on the 98th anniversary of the fire.

If you missed the lunchtime discussion ‘Unlocking the Archives Part 1: Hidden Voices’ you can listen back to the podcast here or you can watch the discussion here.

• Saved from the fire: the National Archives of Ireland Salved Record collection: Zoë Reid and Dr Paul Dryburgh
• What would you save from the flames? Dr Sarah Hendriks and Dr Timothy Murtagh
• Hidden among the data: the Beyond 2022 Knowledge Graph for Irish History: Dr Christophe Debruyne and Dr Lynn Kilgallon showcase this exciting Computer Science research strand in Beyond 2022’s work.

You can also review the response to the project’s research by Professor Guy Beiner, Burns Visiting Scholar in Irish Studies at Boston College, and Orlaith McBride, Director of the National Archives of Ireland. They discuss ‘recovering the memory’ of the Four Courts Blaze, and how archives can respond creatively to the challenge of commemoration within Ireland’s Decade of Centenaries. You can listen back to the podcast here or you can watch the discussion here.

Unlocking the Archive also corresponded with the release of some new archival assets.

The partial release of a new collection The Dublin Gazette, which is the record of official Ireland, published from the late seventeenth to and continuously from 1711 to 1922 when it became Iris Oifigiúil can be found here.

You can also view Harvard MS Eng 662, Rerum Hibernicarum, Scripti et Impressi by Charles Vallancey (1731-1812), an alphabetical list of material relating to Irish history that is divided into two sections; a list of manuscripts held in multiple archives and a supplementary list of printed works.

Vallancey traced and recorded all significant public records relating to Ireland held during his lifetime in public and private collections in Ireland, Britain and Europe. Read more here.

In our latest addition to Archive Fever, David Brown, Archival Discovery Lead with Beyond 2022 offers a detailed analysis of Vallencey’s work here.
Finally Dr Peter Crooks in his visual story “Follow the Money” explores the remarkably rich records of the medieval Irish exchequer—the financial office of the kings of England in Ireland.