The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland (VRTI) has been featured in recent articles in the New York Times and the Boston Globe, highlighting the project’s progress and emphasising the significance of a book authored by archivist Herbert Wood.
Led by Professor Peter Crooks of Trinity College Dublin, the VRTI is a collaborative research programme focused on digitally reconstructing the Record Treasury of the Public Record Office of Ireland (PROI), which was destroyed during the opening engagement of the Irish Civil War in 1922.
Funded by the Irish government, the VRTI utilises modern technologies such as virtual imaging, online networks, and artificial intelligence, as well as traditional methods like printed catalogues and personal contacts. Wood’s book, “A Guide to the Records Deposited in the Public Record Office of Ireland,” has been instrumental in guiding the project’s direction.
Prof. Crooks noted, “Wood’s catalogue was known to Irish historians as the saddest book in the world… [but] it has become the basis for our model to recreate the national archive.”
Partnerships with institutions like the National Archives in Britain and the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland have been crucial in the search for duplicates of lost records. Additionally, significant discoveries have been made in the United States, including volumes of debates from Ireland’s 18th-century Parliament found in the Library of Congress.
The VRTI’s efforts underscore the importance of international collaboration in preserving cultural heritage and historical records for future generations.
The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland is an all-island and international collaborative research project, funded by the Department of Culture under the Decade of Centenaries Programme (2012 – 2023), working to create a virtual reconstruction of the Public Record Office of Ireland destroyed in the opening engagement of the Civil War on June 30th, 1922. From its inception the project has involved Computer Science research, along with research in History and Archival Studies, to provide greater access to Ireland’s deep history.
Read the New York Times article here and the Boston Globe article here.
