Anglo-Irish records from 1996-2002 from the departments of the taoiseach, foreign affairs and justice are being released this week.
Certain State papers from 1992 are also being declassified, comprising government minutes, files from the Office of the Attorney General and records from the departments of the taoiseach and foreign affairs. Some files from earlier years not previously disclosed are also being made available.
Government documents have normally been released for public viewing after 30 years, but this gap is being reduced over time to 20 years due to legislative change in 2018. The decision to move to a 20-year rule in the Republic follows the precedent set by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (Proni). On Thursday, it is releasing files covering mainly 1999. Proni is phasing in the 20-year rule over 10 years, with one-two years’ worth of records reviewed and released each year.
Full coverage in The Irish Times can be found at www.irishtimes.com/tags/state-papers/ and in print, including:
State Papers: What we learned, from details of Boris Yeltsin’s Shannon no-show to Ireland’s lost moon rock
What do the 1994 State Papers reveal?
Bob Geldof warned Tony Blair that failing to support Africans at home would mean upheaval in West
Irish anti-Semitism claims ‘false, irresponsible and mischievous’, said Jewish community in 1944
Wednesday: A decade of change: New taoisigh, IRA ceasefires and a more modern Ireland emerges
Thursday: The 1992 X case, Sinn Féin strategies and the human cost of the Troubles
Friday: Marie Coleman of Queen’s University Belfast on the birth of the Northern Ireland Assembly and why it continues to flounder
Saturday: Broadcaster and historian John Bowman assesses some of the key politicians who shaped the peace process