Explore Carlow’s history when the treasury roadshow comes to town
Official at the the ruins of the Four Courts IN 1922 Photo: Courtesy UCD Archives
CARLOW County Library will host a virtual treasury roadshow, a chance for people to learn about their local history in this exciting new online resource.
When the Public Record Office of Ireland was destroyed during the Battle of the Four Courts in June 1922, seven centuries of Irish history went up in smoke. In recent years, historians, archivists and computer scientists have been searching in archives and libraries at home and abroad, hunting for any material that can help to replace the lost records.
The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland was launched in June 2022, providing the public with free online access to tens of thousands of replacement records, with over 50-million words of searchable text collected from 70 partner archives and libraries around the world. Now, the virtual treasury team is coming to Carlow to share the results of its research.
On Thursday 27 February, the Virtual Treasury Roadshow will visit Carlow Library, Tullow Street, Carlow to show digital records that help to tell the story of Carlow and its people from the 19th century back to medieval times.
Christopher Power, who works in local studies at Carlow County Library, and Louise Kennedy, archivist with Carlow County Council, will share resources for local history. Other speakers will include Ciarán Wallace, Lynn Kilgallon and Brian Gurrin from the virtual treasury, who will each present on various facets of the project.
The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland research programme is supported by the government through funding from the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media under Project Ireland 2040 (www.virtualtreasury.ie). The roadshow event is free and all are welcome.
The roadshow visit will take place in Carlow Library on Thursday 27 February at 6.30pm.
To book a place, please visit buff.ly/4k0BT1g, contact Carlow Library on 059 9129701 or library@carlowcoco.ie.
The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland is the outcome of a five-year State-funded programme of research entitled ‘Beyond 2022' funded by the Government of Ireland under Project Ireland 2040 through the Department of Arts, Culture, Communications, Media and Sport. Led by researchers at Trinity College Dublin, the programme combines historical investigation, archival discovery, conservation and technical innovation to re-imagine and recreate, through digital technologies, the archive lost on June 30th, 1922, in the opening engagement of the Civil War.
