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 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.
1922 Salved Records:
Presented by Jessica Baldwin
conserving Ireland’s ‘lost’ archive
In the aftermath of the 1922 fire, the staff of the Public Record Office of Ireland salvaged over 25,000 sheets of paper and parchment from the rubble of the Four Courts complex. The fact that any records survived is extraordinary. This presentation will explain how traditional conservation techniques have been adapted and refined to suit the very specific needs of the collection and are being used to recover precious records that were once thought lost for ever.
Jessica Baldwin, Senior Conservator — National Archives, Ireland (NAI)
Jessica has over 30 years’ experience of caring for collections in Ireland. She trained as a paper conservator in London before moving to Ireland to work at Trinity College Library. In 2003 she moved to the Chester Beatty to establish the museum’s conservation department before taking on the role of Head of Collections in 2014. A career break allowed her to work as a project conservator on the collections salvaged from the Public Record Office following its destruction in 1922. She joined the National Archives as Senior Conservator in 2022.
Documents will also be presented by Dr Ciarán Wallace and Dr Timothy Murtagh.
