Deep History, Deepening Collaborations

Right: Detail from ‘The Dublin Volunteers on College Green, 4th November 1779’ by Francis Wheatley. Enthusiastic onlookers at the gathering of Dublin Volunteers, mustered to support the Irish parliament’s claim to legislative independence. Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Ireland. (Ref: NGI.125). 39 Rebellious Colonies Records of the Irish Parliament in the age of Revolutions (1776–89) Supported by an Anonymous Foundation The Dublin Volunteers on College Green, 4th November 1779 The records of the Irish Parliament were among the most important collections in the Public Record Office of Ireland . Comprising the official records and reports produced by the Irish Parliament before its abolition in 1801 in the Act of Union, this immense collection spanned several centuries— with a marked concentration of material in the late eighteenth century. The collection was destroyed in 1922. One crucial replacement source for Ireland’s lost parliamentary records is a series of transcripts of debates in the Irish House of Commons . These short-hand transcripts, accompanied by long-hand translations, cover the years 1776 to 1789 and are currently held in the United States Library of Congress . (LOC MS 27292) There are 82 volumes in the collection, comprising 45 notebooks in shorthand and 37 bound volumes of full transcripts. The transcripts cover some 10,648 pages. Compared with the printed speeches in the corresponding Parliamentary Registers, the transcripts show fewer signs of having been edited, and are closer to what was actually said in the chamber. The manuscripts were purchased by the Library of Congress in 1876, one hundred years after the earliest volume in the collection was created. The collection includes unique records of debates for 1776–80 — the period of the American Revolution, and, in Dublin, the Constitution of 1782 when Ireland gained legislative independence for the first time. Now these fascinating parliamentary debates can speak from across the ocean and across the centuries, revealing Ireland’s financial contribution to Britain’s war against the American Colonies, and the electrifying effect of the American Revolution on politics in Ireland. This exciting research will bring the Library of Congress’ unique Irish House of Commons collection back into the spotlight.