The Irish Manuscripts Commission is delighted to be taking part in the Festival of History 2024 with a public lecture entitled Surprising Survivals: The Fire of 1922.
IMC was established in 1928 after the catastrophic fire at the Four Courts in 1922 which destroyed 700 years of Ireland’s documentary heritage. The 100th anniversary of this event was marked with a special edition of Analecta Hibernica — ‘The Fire of 1922’. It includes the first published listing of records retrieved from the rubble, alongside other surprising survivals from archives in Ireland, Britain, and the United States.
Join us in 45 Merrion Square at 11am on Saturday 5th October, as historians and conservators who contributed to this special issue discuss some of their most intriguing discoveries — like the temporary PROI seal pictured above — including letters that reveal the last days of the Public Record Office of Ireland before the fire, and the devastation and recovery afterwards.
No booking required — first come, first served.
Documentary disaster and digital recovery:
Presented by Dr Ciarán Wallace
the afterlife of the lost Public Record Office of Ireland
In 1867 the Public Record Office of Ireland (PROI) opened at the Four Courts in Dublin. Over the following decade tons of archival records, from the Norman era to the nineteenth century, were diligently gathered into this modern, purpose-built premises. On 30 June 1922, in the opening engagement of the Civil War, a catastrophic explosion destroyed the archive and its precious historical documents. A century later the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland is working to digitally recreate the lost building and its collections. This paper peers through the smoke of 1922, back to a successful but overlooked institution, to consider its revived legacy in a digital age.
Ciarán Wallace is Deputy Director of the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland. Having completed his PhD at Trinity College Dublin he lectured in Modern Irish History at universities in Ireland and Britain before joining the research team reconstructing the lost Public Record Office of Ireland. Ciarán has published on Irish social and political history, Irish political cartoons and online learning.
Documents will also be presented by Jessica Baldwin and Dr Timothy Murtagh.
