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

6 Introduction Beyond 2022 Directorate on the official launch of the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland June 30th, 2022, marks the centenary of the explosion and fire at the Four Courts, Dublin, which destroyed the Record Treasury at the Public Record Office of Ireland (PROI) and, with it, seven centuries of Ireland’s documentary heritage. While incomparable with the loss of human life, the destruction of the Record Treasury was one of the great tragedies of the Civil War. Within days of the fire, the staff of the PROI were gathering scraps among the ruins, carefully parcelling up for posterity battle-scarred paper records and charred fragments of parchment. So began a century of slow recovery. Since its inception at Trinity College Dublin in 2016, the Beyond 2022 research programme has built on these foundations, drawing together and enriching in digital form the work of generations of historians, copyists, genealogists and clerks who helped to preserve Ireland’s archival heritage, and deepening collaborations with the archivists, librarians and conservators who are the custodians of Ireland’s documentary heritage the world over. In 2017–18, the National Archives (successor institution to the PROI), the National Archives UK (successor institution to the Public Record Office, London, established in 1838) and Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI, established in 1923–4) joined forces in creating a research partnership with Trinity College Dublin and the Science Foundation Ireland ADAPT Centre for digital technologies. This marked the first formal partnership of these three genetically-linked archival institutions. They were soon joined as Core Partners by the Irish Manuscripts Commission (established in 1928) and Trinity College Dublin Library. We were honoured in 2018 when the Expert Advisory Group on Centenary Commemorations chaired by Dr Maurice Manning identified Beyond 2022 as an all-island and international legacy initiative with potential to provide a lasting and meaningful legacy beyond the Decade of Centenaries. The announcement of State support in 2019 under Project Ireland 2040 through the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media enabled Beyond 2022 to mature into a unique collaborative framework within Irish cultural and academic life. Our research operates at the intersection of three sectors and embraces several academic disciplines including Digital Humanities, Cultural Heritage and Computer Science. Our colleagues at the Science Foundation Ireland-funded ADAPT Centre—in particular our technical architect, Dr Gary Munnelly—provided frontier technical solutions for unlocking the content of disparate historical documents, scattered across many repositories, within a common open-access and sustainable framework. At the core of the enterprise since 2019 has been archival discovery led by Dr David Brown in coordination with Beyond 2022 researchers embedded in The National Archives (UK) and the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. Medievalist Dr Paul Dryburgh and early modernist Dr Neil Johnston of The National Archives UK generously shared their expertise in developing the project’s scope and, as Co-Investigators since 2019, have helped deliver the programme of research and amplify its impact internationally.