About the Virtual Treasury
The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland (VRTI) is an all-island and international research partnership working to reconstruct the Public Record Office of Ireland — a magnificent archive destroyed in 1922 at the outset of the Civil War. The research programme is funded by the Government of Ireland under Project Ireland 2040 through the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport.
Launched in 2022 by Taoiseach Micheál Martin, VRTI is an open-access resource, freely and permanently available online to all those interested in Ireland’s deep history, at home and abroad.
VRTI restores and reimagines a lost archival treasure — the Public Record Office of Ireland, destroyed in the Irish Civil War in 1922 — through historical research, archival conservation, and technical innovation. It enriches the public understanding of Ireland’s past and reconnects a global audience to our documentary heritage.
VRTI does not merely platform digital resources shared by partners. Rather, it creates something entirely new — a veritable Treasury of historical sources, newly translated, enhanced and contextualised — from the collections to which partner organisations provide access. VRTI is, in this sense, entirely unique in the world.
VRTI:
- Democratises access to authentic archival records of Irish history;
- Unites dispersed collections across Ireland and internationally;
- Supports education and lifelong learning at all levels;
- Strengthens all-island and international collaboration;
- Engages the Irish diaspora, with over 50% of users based outside Ireland;
- Supports the adoption of advanced digital technologies, including responsible AI, across the cultural heritage sector.
The research programme is hosted by Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, having been founded by Dr Peter Crooks, Department of History, in 2016.
The Beyond 2022 Project is a landmark initiative, not just because of what it will achieve through ground-breaking technology, but because of its collaborative approach. It allows for the re-exploration of the history of our island and the links forged over centuries with our neighbours.
An Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, TD
Partners
VRTI draws strength from a unique research partnership which deepens collaborations between expanding consortium of over institutional research partners across Ireland and Britain, as well as Europe, North America and Australia.
VRTI unites records from over 75 memory institutions, including five Core Partners: the National Archives (NAI), Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI), The National Archives UK (TNA), Irish Manuscripts Commission (IMC), and Trinity College Dublin Library.
This State all-island and international legacy initiative is an investment in Ireland’s digital futures beyond the centenary.
Exciting developments in linked data and knowledge graph technologies enable all users to delve deeper into our digitized collections, identifying connections between people and places across seven centuries of Irish history.
Guiding Principles
Five Guiding Principles encapsulate the ethos of the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland as a public good, and a unique framework that enables collaboration between memory institutions, academic research, and cutting-edge digital technologies.
Foundational Guiding Principle:
Democratizing Access
The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland is an open-access resource, freely and permanently available online to all those interested in Ireland’s deep history at home and abroad.
Enabling Principles
Deepening Collaborations
The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland provides a framework for connecting Irish historical collections across the island and worldwide, thereby rediscovering our collective national memories.
Empowering Research
The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland empowers research partnerships that harness specialist knowledge of Ireland’s historical collections, sparking the next generation of interdisciplinary research questions in history, archival studies, conservation and heritage science, Digital Humanities and Computer Science.
Innovating Technologies
The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland is an investment in Ireland’s digital future. It provides frontier technical solutions for unlocking the content of disparate historical documents, scattered across many repositories, within a common open-access and sustainable framework.
Inspiring Engagement
The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland recognizes the vitality of Irish history at home and abroad, and aims to inspire personal research journeys, now and in coming generations, that connect the public and Irish diaspora with their shared history, ancestry and culture.
Timeline — Ten Years of VRTI (2015–2025)
2025
30 June: VRTI 103: Major release of new materials including three Portals — Age of Conquest; Age of Revolutions; and Population Portal. VRTI exceeds a quarter of a billion words of searchable content.
Launch of Knowledge Graph Explorer — the first of its kind to provide intuitive exploration tools for Linked Open Data concerning Irish history
May: PRONI hosts Ireland and America 250th Anniversary Perspectives
May: Longford Roadshow
March: Carlow Roadshow
January: Release of a fifth Gold Seam — Tudor Fiants
2024
November: Waterford Roadshow
Sept: Cork Roadshow
30 June: VRTI 102. Release of Calendars of the 1798 Rebellion Papers, curated in partnership with the NAI
Conservation of Archbishop Swayne’s register (PRONI).
June: Derry Guildhall, Roadshow
April: LUCAS Annual Lecture, University of Liverpool by VRTI Director.
April: Mayo Roadshow
April: New York Times features VRTI
March: PRONI Centenary
January: Release of a fourth Gold Seam — CIRCLE 2.0
2023
November: Launch of Special Issue of Analecta Hibernica, no. 53 – The Fire of 1922.
November: Donegal Roadshow
September: Keynote Address by VRTI Director at Archives and Records Association UK.
June 2023: Wicklow Roadshow
2022
October: Award of Roger Ellis Prize by Archives and Records Association — The Oscar of the Archives Sector
27 June: Centenary Launch of the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland at Dublin Castle by An Taoiseach Micheál Martin. VRTI releases 50M words of searchable content and three Gold Seams: Medieval Exchequer, Cromwellian Surveys and 1766 Religious Census.
2021–2022
Participation in Decade of Centenaries Artists in Residence programme: Trinity Long Room Hub appoints Mairéad McClean as Artist in Residence.
2021
30 June: 99th Anniversary Research Showcase at The National Archives UK (TNA)
June: Digitally Reconstructing Ireland’s Lost Archive: The National Archives UK Podcast
25 May: People, Place and Power Research Showcase with Local Government Archives and Record Managers, launching publication on the Grand Jury in Ireland
2020
30 June: 98th Anniversary Research Showcase at Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute
September: Recovered from the Flames Research Case at Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI)
2019
5 December: Launch of Phase II by An Taoiseach (Leo Varadkar) and the Minister for Culture at Dublin Castle. The Provost of Trinity College Dublin, Dr Patrick Prendergast, spoke. Funding of €2.5M approved for Beyond 2022: Ireland’s Virtual Record Treasury research project under Project Ireland 2040 through the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
Second Phase guidance of the Expert Advisory Group on Centenary Commemorations identifies Beyond 2022 as a specific legacy initiative from the State’s commemorative programme
2018
November: Three-year multiannual international lecture series commences at Trinity Long Room Hub inspired by Beyond 2022: Out of the Ashes: Collective Memory, Cultural Loss and Recovery, coordinated by Dr Peter Crooks.
February: Launch of concept by Linda Doyle, Vice President for Research, Trinity College Dublin, at the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute
2016–2018 (Phase I)
Project established by Dr Peter Crooks and Computer Scientist, Dr Séamus Lawless (†2019), from a competitive grant awarded to Trinity College Dublin by the Irish Research Council in 2016 under the name ‘Beyond 2022: Ireland’s Virtual Record Treasury’. Dr Ciaran Wallace joins VRTI as Deputy Director.
2015
21 September 2015: Building on his experience reconstructing destroyed medieval records, historian Dr Peter Crooks develops early plans for a reconstruction of the Public Record Office of Ireland. His collaboration with modern historian, Dr Ciaran Wallace, begins, with early scoping leading to a major funding proposal.
1922
Destruction of the Public Record Office of Ireland, one of the world’s first purpose-built archival repositories (est. 1867), at the start of the Civil War. One of Europe’s largest continuous State Record Collections, spanning over 700 years, is lost
