A new exhibition on the National Archives of Ireland website promises to bring a snapshot of a past era to your PC. Shane Hegarty reports

It's unlikely that Patrick Kavanagh, when indulging himself in a bit of ill behaviour at an Áras an Úachtaráin garden party in 1943, ever thought it would be held up to the light in an exhibition. But from today the document from the president's office noting not just that the poet's behaviour was "objectionable" but also that he looked "untidy and not altogether clean" will feature on the website of the National Archives of Ireland. Alongside a selection of photographs, letters, and other documents, it is part of the exhibition Views Of Four Presidencies (1938-1975).

There is a letter from Maud Gonne Mac Bride (right), declining an invitation to a 1939 garden party because of what she called the "horrid coercion Act" - the Offences Against the State Act - that Douglas Hyde was about to sign. There is also a letter from Richard Nixon to Eamon de Valera, introducing the new governor of California, Ronald Reagan, and visitors' books featuring the signatures of Princess Grace and Prince Rainier of Monaco and their children.

These are among more 40 images of original documents that are going online, along with information from another 4,600 documents. It marks a new beginning in how we access State documents.

"We launched a new website last week, so we wanted to have a big feature to go with it," says webmaster and archivist Elizabeth McEvoy. "I was working both on the Web and with the archives from the office of secretary to the president, so we thought: why not combine them? It offers a real snapshot of Irish life at the time. . . . The early documents relate to protocol and precedent, because the presidency was a new role, but they become fascinating in how they reflect the culture and society of the time, rather than politics proper, because, in theory, the office transcends politics."

The national archives have been making records available online for some years, the vast bulk of them only as information rather than as facsimiles of the original documents. The website points searchers in the direction of some documents and gives access to others. It has been attracting two million hits a year, with most visitors using the genealogy service.

"It has possibly become our most powerful asset, and it's especially popular among the Irish diaspora and global community," says McEvoy. "It's a great online asset for those who either might never travel to Ireland or those who want to do a little research before coming here."

The website should also become an increasingly fascinating resource for Irish browsers. Already present are such gems as passport photographs of Samuel Beckett and James Joyce's family census return from 1901, on which they left blank the section asking whether any of them was "deaf and dumb; dumb only; blind; imbecile or idiot; or lunatic".

"We would like to think that this is just the beginning," says McEvoy. "There is great potential for the future, and we hope to digitise more images and put them online. We would like to perhaps take samples of government records released in January and put them up. It helps put these records in context, because, while we put them on the site and you can search for them, the visual element always helps."

The expectation is that as each batch of documents is released, every January, they will form a growing, accessible, online archive. With the President, Mrs McAleese, launching the online exhibition today, there may be an ironic surprise down the line. "In 30 years' time, hopefully, we'll be able to retrieve the file relating to the President's agreeing to launch our exhibition," laughs McEvoy.

• Views Of Four Presidencies (1938- 1975) is at www.nationalarchives.ie