There is some great
news from the latest stakeholder forum meeting of the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (www.nidirect.gov.uk/proni) – PRONI is
hoping to re-open very shortly on pre-Covid terms, with the
dispensing of the on-site two meter social distancing provision, and
the removal of the need to pre-book a place*. The final timeline for
this is subject to a final go ahead from its parent government
department, but we were advised that this is likely to be in the very
near future indeed. The only likely major restriction to stay in
place, for the time being at least, will be no late night opening
provision on a Thursday. The on-site cafe, which is run by a private
contractor, has already re-opened. (As soon as this is confirmed I'll blog an update!)
In due course, it is hoped that some limited on-site events may happen again in the next two months or so, for example workshops, but PRONI fully intends to adopt a hybrid model of on-site attendance and online attendance via Zoom, at least for the foreseeable future. It was noted that in the last year PRONI has held 80 Zoom events, with some 5000 attendees, a level of success not usually replicated with on-side attendance alone. (An attendee from Historic Environment Records for Northern Ireland noted a similar success rate for its online events)
(*Although pre-booking for most will be dispensed with, it is envisaged that some form of pre-booking service may remain in place for those seeking much larger orders of material.)
On latest records releases, some 565 files from 1998 have been released (132 have some redactions), covering a range of topics, including the NI Assembly, parades, Drumcree, peace lines, the Omagh bomb, etc. It was noted that because of Covid there has been some disruption in trying to bring the 30 years releases rule down to 20 years – the initial plan was to try to be at 20 years by 2023, this may be delayed by a short period, but they are hoping to catch up again asap. See https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/proni-annual-releases for further details.
PRONI has also added a further 500 or so documents to the Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN) (https://cain.ulster.ac.uk), for the period from 1995-1996, with a total of some 3500+ documents from the archive now available. Amongst the topics featured are President Clinton's visit to Derry.
As part of the centenary of the foundation of the Northern Irish state, PRONI is also releasing materials that have 'fallen through the cracks' in the past from the period from 1921-1923. So far, 350 files have been identified, with 219 released from these, and a further 223 files are currently being looked at to see what might be released from these also. They cover a variety of topics and departments, including a substantial tranche at HA/60/2/2-153 (various urban district council files), additional HA files, and some additional materials within FIN/18/3/146-212, FIN/20/1/2-8, 33, 41, 47 (Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Agriculture).
Stephen Scarth also advised that a series of cabinet conclusion papers from 1921-1972, previously digitised and transcribed by Cengage, and available on-site only, will now be made more widely available for institutions in Ireland; Libraries NI is already in discussion with Cengage on securing access.
Community Engagement Officer & Creative Producer Laura Aguiar outlined a new 'Collab Archive' initiative, as a follow up to the recent successful 'Making the Future' project, with this new initiative funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. This will be a volunteer based digital skills project, targeting 50 volunteers to address topics such as women's themes, LGBT issues, emigration, citizenship, etc, by engaging with a theme and resources at PRONI to fully explore it. There will be two phases - engagement workshops held online, and then in-person volunteering opportunities to work on particular projects. The first project will look at diaries recorded by Roberta Hewitt, wife of the poet John Hewitt, with an end goal to be to produce an animated film on finds made from that. It is hoped that in due course volunteers may continue to work with PRONI beyond the scope of the project once completed. One particular aspect of the initiative is to develop a digital model to help volunteers transcribe material from home, and there was a wide ranging discussion about the potential benefits of such a tool if they are successful in its creation.
Olwen Purdue, Director of the Centre for Public History at Queen's University, also advised of an exhibition at St Mathews' Church from next week, entitled 'St. Matthews at War', which is an anniversary exhibition that will feature a variety of subjects and exhibits, from a crozier found in the grounds of the church to part of a car bomb!
Paddy Fitzgerald advised that on March 26th there will be an event looking at the history of Omagh at the Centre for Migration Studies (https://mellonmigrationcentre.com).
Roddy Hegarty from the Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich Memorial Library & Archive advised that their spring series of talks kicks off shortly, with an online talk on March 8th 2022 by Daithí Ó Corráin on 'The Archbishops of Armagh and the Partition of Ireland' – details at www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-archbishops-of-armagh-and-the-partition-of-ireland-daithi-o-corrain-tickets-278237374477
Gillian Hunt also advised that the Ulster Historical Foundation's latest US talks tour kicks off soon, from March 12th - full details at https://www.ancestryireland.com/tour-march-2022/.
Finally, PRONI has released a limited print run of a book entitled
'Ireland 1900-1925:
Crisis, War and Revolution', which has already
been made freely available online at
https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/sites/default/files/publications/Ireland-1900-1925-Crisis-War-Revolution-A-Resource-for-A-Level-Students.PDF.
The book is a resource for A-level students, covering the period
leading up to the establishment of Northern Ireland.
(With thanks to all on the forum, and to Gavin McMahon at PRONI)
Chris
My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.
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