Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland

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Welcome to the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland — an all-island and international legacy for the Decade of Centenaries.

The Treasury re-imagines and reconstructs through digital technologies the Public Record Office of Ireland, a magnificent archive destroyed on June 30th, 1922, in the opening engagement of the Civil War. 

This is an open-access resource, freely and permanently available online to all those interested in Ireland’s deep history at home and abroad. Together with our partners across Ireland and around the world, we are democratizing access to invaluable records and illuminating seven centuries of Irish history.

GOLD SEAMS - icon

GOLD SEAMS

Gold Seams are full-scale reconstructions of entire series of archives that were destroyed in in 1922

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Curated Collections

Open a new window into Ireland's past through our curated collections.

By the numbers

original

In 1922,
the Record Treasury contained

  • 100,000 square feet of archival shelving
  • organised into 4,500 series of records
  • accumulated over 7 centuries.
  •  
  • It was destroyed in 1 afternoon.
reconstructed

In 2022,
the Virtual Record Treasury democratizes access to

  • 50 million words of searchable text spanning 7 centuries
  • 2.7 million knowledge graph triples
  • 150,000+ database records
  • 6,000+ maps
  • created with the support of 70 archival partners.
Democratizing access to Ireland’s deep history.
Explore the Data

Hidden Stories