The latest tranche of records from the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland (VRTI) has 175,000 new documents lost in a fire at the Four Courts in Dublin during the Civil War in 1922.
Pieced together from copies of documents lost in the fire from archives around the globe, the treasury was launched three years ago.
Some of the archivists involved choose their favourite documents from this release.
The Black Death
On Tuesday, October 7th, 1348, the exchequer in Dublin abruptly shut down. The Black Death, which had probably reached Ireland in the late summer, had finally overwhelmed ordinary life in the city.
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For the next five weeks, as the disease raged through the population, the clerks did not do any of their usual tasks of taking and making payments on the Government’s behalf. Only on November 12th, 1348 did individuals start to come back to the Exchequer and business slowly resumed as the city tried to come to terms with what had happened.
The Dublin chronicler, Friar John Clyn, wrote: “These cities of Dublin and Drogheda were almost destroyed and wasted of inhabitants and men so that in Dublin alone, from the beginning of August right up to Christmas (1348) 14,000 men died.”
The rolls say simply “nulla” – nothing, repeated again and again down the right-hand side. When the clerks came to write up this roll at the end of the financial year in September 1349, writing this section must have been an unwelcome reminder of an all-too-recent terrifying time.
– Dr Elizabeth Biggs, research fellow, VRTI
The American Revolution
Why do thousands of pages of Irish parliamentary debates survive in the Library of Congress, Washington, DC? Long after the Act of Union of Great Britain and Ireland ended the existence of the Irish Parliament in 1801, a collection of diaries containing shorthand notes of debates and their transcriptions (pictured above side by side) were purchased by the Library of Congress in 1876. Created by, or for, Henry Cavendish, from 1776-1789, the diaries provide the only first-hand account of the debates of the Irish House of Commons during the period of the American Revolution and Legislative Independence.
– Dr Joel Herman, research fellow, VRTI
Discovery of Newgrange
Newgrange, central to our understanding of Ireland’s ancient past, was only rediscovered in the 1690s. The Dublin Philosophical Society, embracing new scientific methods, informed the Welsh antiquarian Edward Lhuyd of a mysterious “cave” in Co Meath. Lhuyd conducted the first archaeological investigation of Newgrange, observing “barbarous sculptures”, cells, a stone cistern, and bones in the chamber. Though a Roman coin was found, Lhuyd doubted Roman origins, citing the tomb’s crude design.
[ Newgrange tombs not just burial places for elite, new study showsOpens in new window ]
He also dismissed Viking involvement, noting the Irish annals placed their arrival after Roman times. Curiously, local legends of pagan rituals suggested a lingering folk memory from prehistoric times. Lhuyd’s work, alongside the Dublin Philosophical Society’s, signalled a shift toward modern historical inquiry, blending folklore, manuscript research, observation and early scientific reasoning.
– Dr Eamon Darcy, Maynooth University
A plea for tolerance
This letter, written in Irish, was discovered on the person of a Neale MacDavid when he was arrested between Donegal Town and Barnesmore Gap in August 1661. Alarmed, the arresting officer struggled to find someone to translate it. When he did, he sent the letter straight to his superiors in Dublin, who forwarded it to London. It is now among the intelligence files in the State Papers Ireland at the National Archives, UK.
What had alarmed the authorities? The letter relates to a proposed meeting of Franciscans in Mayo or Donegal. With Oliver Cromwell dead and Charles II now in power, they hoped to reorganise their order under a more tolerant government. The original translation and the enclosing papers all survive.
– Dr Neil Johnston, the National Archives, UK
Racism and a duel
In December 1769 Anne Macartney wrote to her cousin, Sir George Macartney, Chief Secretary in Dublin, about a duel he allegedly fought with Lord Moira, an Irish peer and political opponent.
" . . . I am shocked to death about you. I have just heard you have fought a duel with Lord Moira, and are wounded . . . my God I hoped you had lived too long from the Hottentots to be affected by anything they could utter."
Hottentot was a racist label historically applied to the Khoikhoi peoples of southern Africa. Here, Anne Macartney is describing not Africans, but Irish people – she hoped George Macartney had outgrown the influence of the “native” Irish. Born in Antrim and educated at Trinity College Dublin, George Macartney identified as English. Although tensions ran high between him and Lord Moira, this duel never actually took place. But the rumour reflects the political heat.
However, Macartney would fight real duels during his diplomatic career. In the 1780s he fought two duels – one in India and another in London. In both, he was wounded; the second time, seriously. Macartney is remembered for describing the British Empire as one on which “the sun never sets”. He died in 1806, without children.
– Dr Timothy Murtagh, Research Fellow, VRTI
Where was the richest farmland?
This map, produced as part of the 1891 Census, shows the ‘rateable valuation’ of land across Ireland. Local taxes were calculated on this assessment of local land values. Landowners in northwest Donegal and Meath paid very different rates. As these local taxes paid for local welfare, the policy ensured that poorer, overcrowded regions fared worst in times of crisis like the Great Famine.
This map, from a few decades later, suggests that the basic problem remained. But modern statistics-gathering and printing of strong visuals, such as coloured maps and diagrams in the census report, helped make a case for land reforms in the late 19th and early 20th century.
– Dr Ciarán Wallace, co-director, VRTI
