Seven centuries’ worth of lost Irish historical records, covering topics such as espionage, political corruption, and the daily lives of ordinary people, have been recovered and made available to the public. This monumental initiative aims to fill in the gaps of Irish history by releasing 175,000 new records and millions more words of searchable content.
The “Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland” project, a collaboration between several global academic institutions led by Trinity College Dublin, has employed historians, computer scientists, and other experts to digitally recreate parts of the massive archive that was destroyed during Ireland’s civil war.
The project was launched in 2022, on the centenary of the destruction of the Public Record Office in Dublin, which occurred during a five-day battle that began on June 28, 1922. The initiative is now commemorating the 103rd anniversary of this “calamity” by adding newly recovered material that spans from the Anglo-Norman conquest and the 1798 rebellion to a valuable genealogical record from 19th-century censuses.
Approximately 75 archives and libraries in Ireland, the UK, and around the world were enlisted to source transcripts and duplicates of documents, many of which had been forgotten and left in storage. The latest material to be catalogued and digitised brings the total to 350,000 records and 250 million words of searchable Irish history. The project has successfully combined traditional academic investigation with artificial intelligence support and expertise from institutions that hold Irish records.
Among the uncovered treasures are 60,000 names from the lost censuses, a valuable discovery for genealogists and descendants of the Irish diaspora. The project also features a portal dedicated to the “Age of Conquest”, which contains Latin parchments and 5 million words of Anglo-Norman Irish history from 1170 to 1500. State papers from 1660 to 1720, comprising 10 million words, including intelligence reports from the Tudor era, have also been uploaded.
Additionally, a diary that ended up at the US Library of Congress, shedding light on the corrupt dealings leading to the abolition of the Irish parliament in 1800 and Ireland’s incorporation into the UK, is now accessible.
The project is not only recovering lost Irish history but also introducing a search tool called the “Knowledge Graph Explorer”, which can identify people, places, and connections between them, further enhancing the access to and understanding of Ireland’s rich past.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/30/pioneering-project-releases-more-lost-irish-records-spanning-700-years
