The Irish Committee of Historical Sciences will host a symposium at the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland at Helen Roe Theatre, Society House, 63 Merrion Square, Dublin 2 at 2pm on Saturday 25th February 2023. The symposium will look at Historians and National Archives. Our speakers at the symposium will be Dr. Ciarán Wallace of Trinity College Dublin, Zoë Reid, Keeper of Collection Care and Public Services, National Archives of Ireland, and Stephen Scarth, Head of Public Services at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. The meeting will be chaired by Professor Steven Ellis of NUI Galway and Chair of the ICHS.
This year marks the centenary of the foundation of the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, as well as the 45th anniversary of the opening of the doors of the National Archives of Ireland, following the amalgamation of the Public Records Office of Ireland and the State Papers Office under the National Archives Act of 1986. Both repositories inherited their National Archives function from the PROI founded in 1867. From the beginning, what was available for consultation, who had access to public records and their interpretation in the contested arena of Irish history proved controversial. Historians have played a role in forming policy and public opinion, being critics of government policy towards archives, as well as advocating for access and resources for repositories.
With the recent Decade of Centenaries the issue of digital inclusion has come to the fore, with a number of projects such as the large scale digitization of records at the Military Archives of Ireland, or the Beyond 2022 project. This symposium will examine how historians, conservators and archivists can come together to advocate for access, resources and digital inclusion into the future.
All are welcome to attend.
For more information contact our secretary, Kieran Hoare, at kieran.hoare@nuigalway.ie