A Century of Recovery – and Beyond - Marking the centenary of the Four Courts fire (1922) and the launch of the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland

14 Gold Seams Gold Seams are full-scale reconstructions of entire series of archives that were destroyed in 1922. They bring together digitized images of replacement manuscripts with transcriptions and translations. Gold Seams include deep historical context and exploration tools, providing an enriched understanding of life at the time. For the centenary, the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland presents three Gold Seams: ● The Medieval Exchequer ● Cromwellian Surveys of the Seventeenth Century ● 1766 Religious Census Gold Seam 1 Medieval Exchequer 850 years ago, in the winter of 1171, King Henry II (1154–89) of England arrived in Ireland at the head of a large army, and took the island into his possession as a dominion of the English crown. Soon, various English governing institutions were established in Ireland, including the financial department known as the exchequer. The exchequer was responsible for collecting and spending the king’s money in Ireland. This included rents from land, payments and fines, customs on goods, court fees, and taxes. The Medieval Exchequer Gold Seam provides access to one of the most significant and underused sources for the history of late- medieval Ireland and its connections with Britain and the wider world—the records of the medieval Irish exchequer. These documents are now held at The National Archives (UK). Dating back to the thirteenth century and continuing for nearly 200 years, these records are a treasure trove of information about Irish society, economy and politics in the centuries after Ireland was conquered. They offer fresh insights into many aspects of everyday life across most of the island: wealth and power, war and diplomacy, trade and economic activity, law and landholding, religion and political culture. The records reveal how royal government was financed and how Ireland was administered by—and for—the English crown. A chequered history? Caricature of the Irish exchequer in action. Drawn in Dublin castle in the early 15th century. The original was in the ‘Red Book of the Irish Exchequer’, one of the oldest parchment books destroyed in 1922. This facsimile dates from the 1870s.