VRTI Annual Research Showcase: Building Collections, Deepening Connections
An in-person Research Showcase.
Join us in Trinity College, Dublin, to hear about our latest releases of records, and new tools for exploring the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland.
This fourth annual showcase presents fascinating sessions explaining our latest research, sharing fresh record releases, demonstrating new tools to help explore the collections, and highlighting our busy partnerships.
Explore Ireland’s links to the American Revolution, and see behind the scenes in the struggle for (and against!) Catholic Emancipation.
See how new Computer Science research can help you navigate the ocean of digitised history to find the women and men from early modern Ireland.
Hear how we work with expert conservators to make delicate medieval scrolls available online. Use our new interactive map for searching the 1766 Religious Census of Ireland. Travel back to the birth of Local History in Ireland, visiting localaties across the island before railways or modern roads.
Visit https://virtual-treasury-research-showcase-2026.eventbrite.ie to register and learn more!
10.00 — Welcome
- Dr Ciarán Wallace, VRTI Programme Director
10.15–11.30 — Session 1 — Ireland in the Age of Global Revolutions
- States of Independence: Marking USA 250 — Dr Joel Herman, VRTI
- Daniel O’Connell, the State, and Emancipation: Catholic Emancipation in the Virtual Record Treasury — Dr Timothy Murtagh, VRTI
- Worse than War: Lord Anglesey, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1828–1833) — Dr Síle McGuckian
11.30–11.45 — Break
11.45–13.00 — Session 2 — The Future of Digital History
- Digital Pathways into the Past: Building the Knowledge Graph for Irish History — Dr Lynn Kilgallon, VRTI
- The State Papers Ireland Gold Seam (1660–1715) — Dr Neil Johnston, Head of Early Modern Records, The National Archives UK
- Hidden VOICES, New Technologies: Women in Early Modern Ireland — Prof. Jane Ohlmeyer, Erasmus Smith’s Chair of History TCD
13.00–13.45 — Break
13.45–15.00 — Session 3 — Rescued Stories, Shared Pasts
- Conserving the Armagh Registers at PRONI — Sarah Graham, Head of Conservation, Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
- The Earliest Records Saved from 1922 — Jessica Baldwin, Senior Conservator, National Archives Ireland
- The 1766 Census of Ireland: Lost, Recovered … and Now Mapped — Dr Brian Gurrin, VRTI
- ‘A Heap of Rude Materials’: Exploring Shared Pasts through the Birth of Local History (1680–1750) — Dr Eamon Darcy, Maynooth University
15.00–15.10 — Concluding Remarks
The Virtual Record Treasury is supported by the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport, and the Fitzpatrick Family Foundation.
