Lost Irish historical documents.

crockholm · 17-09-2013 2:28pm #1

Whilst visiting Ireland this summer,we stopped at the castle in Newcastle West in Co. Limerick for a tour,during the tour we were informed by the guide that the adjoining house dating from 1770,or so,(now destroyed) was used as a hold up for anti-treaty forces in the civil war.The house was shelled,and in the inferno,much of the towns written history went with it.

On a larger scale,something similar happened in the Four Courts,and iirc,the Customs House also lost some of it's archive.

I understand this is a difficult question to answer,but, What exactly was lost? In what way did the destruction of these buildings hinder historical study? Were they just details of whom owed what to the Landlord?

What don't we know about Ireland as a result of these actions?

Jawgap · 17-09-2013 3:58pm

I think the most significant loss was the census records from 1811 to 1851.

The government departments based in the Custom House at the time were Inland Revenue, Local Government, and the Stamp Office. The building also housed the Income Tax & Joint Stock Company Registers and the Estate Duty Control Registers.

A lot of tax records were lost and records of births, marriages and burials (some from the 17th century) were lost - but a lot of these were copies and the originals still reside in many cases in parishes.

The wills etc that were lost were recreated from chancery records where necessary

there was a fire in Dublin Castle in the 1750s which is regarded as more damaging because of the wealth of medieval documents that were lost.

Jawgap · 17-09-2013 4:00pm

From the National Archives......

The original census returns for 1861 and 1871 were destroyed shortly after the censuses were taken. Those for 1881 and 1891 were pulped during the First World War, probably because of the paper shortage. The returns for 1821, 1831, 1841 and 1851 were, apart from a few survivals, notably for a few counties for 1821 and 1831, destroyed in 1922 in the fire at the Public Record Office at the beginning of the Civil War.

robp · 18-09-2013 5:22pm

Custom House Fire also destroyed the original Down survey maps, some copies survive but coverage is not complete. Much of the early census records were destroyed deliberately by civil servants during WW1 while other material was destroyed by a fire in 1711 at Custom office, a fire in 1758 at Dublin Castle as was already mentioned. There was another fire in Maynooth in 1940 that destroyed a lot records of the seminarians useful for genealogists.

I can only imagine how many ancient records were destroyed in the Cromwellian period. I have there are Irish early medieval manuscripts that we know about but where no copies survive. More of these early Irish books survive in Continental Europe then in Ireland which hints at great losses here.

Dr.Tank Adams · 21-09-2013 9:37pm

I always thought this was a very sad subject, how much of a help it would be to have all of these document's to research today.

DublinWriter · 21-09-2013 9:41pm

Even more neglectful was the loss of census records from 1861 to 1891 due to either destruction due to lack of storage space or pulping to produce paper during WW1.

Most of Ireland's criminal court records prior to 1967 were destroyed in the 1970's.

Lost Irish historical documents.

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