Irish Studies: Primary Sources
What is a Primary Source?
Not quite sure what a "Primary Source" is? Watch this 2-minute video and find out!
Find Irish Primary Sources
- CELT: Coprpus of Electronic TextsThe Free Digital Humanities Resource for Irish history, literature and politics, bringing the wealth of Irish literary and historical culture to you on the Internet, for the use and benefit of everyone worldwide.
- DHO:Discovery - A Gateway To Irish Cultural ArtefactsA gateway to Irish digital collections and resources, information and knowledge. Discovery supports the interdisciplinary and inter-institutional sharing of digital research collections of Irish interest.
- Eighteenth Century Journals Portal This link opens in a new windowDigitised collections of rare journals printed between 1693 and 1835 covering all aspects of eighteenth-century social, political and literary life.
- FamilySearch This link opens in a new windowFamilySearch is the largest genealogy organization in the world. Millions of people use FamilySearch records, resources, and services to learn more about their family history. For over 100 years, FamilySearch has been actively gathering, preserving, and sharing genealogical records worldwide.
- General Register Office Ireland This link opens in a new window(Oifig An Ard-Chláraitheora) is the central civil repository for records relating to Births, Deaths and Marriages in Ireland.
- HNAG Database of Irish Historical Statistics This link opens in a new windowDatabase containing historic Irish economic statistics, inluding: Agriculture, Finance, Industry, Labour, Population, Trade, and Miscellaneous statistics.
- Ireland-Australia Transportation Database This link opens in a new windowSearchable database of Irish transported to Australia between 1788 and 1868. Database maintained by the National Archives of Ireland. The transportation records include name, trial date, crime, sentence and ship
- Irish Newspaper Archive This link opens in a new windowFree to search. Request full-text copies of specific newspaper articles through our Get It Interloan Service.
- National Archives of Ireland This link opens in a new windowNational Archives holds a wide variety of records, many of which are relevant to Irish genealogy and local history.
- National Library of Ireland: Digital PhotographsThe Library has digitised the Lawrence (Royal & Cabinet), Poole Whole Plate and Independent Newspapers (1912 -1936), Clarke, Eason, Keogh, Stereo Pairs and Tempest glass plate collections and these images are now accessible, at a low resolution and with basic information, through the Digital Photographs database.
- Nineteenth Century Collections Online: NCCO (Gale Cengage) This link opens in a new windowDigitised primary sources form collections around the world. The first four collections released are Asia and the West: Diplomacy and Cultural Exchange; British Politics and Society; British Theatre, Music, and Literature: High and Popular Culture; and European Literature, 1790-1840: The Corvey Collection.
- Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI)PRONI aims to identify, preserve and make available Northern Ireland's unique archival heritage and community memory. PRONI has a programme of digitising significant archives to make them accessible to the public online.
- Sources: A National Library of Ireland Database for Irish Research This link opens in a new windowSearch manuscripts held at the National Library of Ireland (up to the 1980s), and Irish manuscripts held in other libraries and archives in Ireland and worldwide (1940s-1970s).
Find Books Containing Primary Sources
There are many books in the library which reproduce Primary Sources. Try searching Library Search | Ketu for books on your topic, or explore the recommended titles below.
Irish Sources at the Hocken Collections
Irish Sources at the Hocken CollectionsThe Hocken Collections hold a number of sources relating to individuals and organisations with Irish origins and connections. This reference guide will help you to find them.
Primary Sources for Events in Irish History
© Copyright Albert Bridge and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
- 1641 DepositionsThe 1641 Depositions (Trinity College Dublin, MSS 809-841) are witness testimonies mainly by Protestants, but also by some Catholics, from all social backgrounds, concerning their experiences of the 1641 Irish rebellion
- 1916 Easter Rising (BBC)Explore the events leading up to 1916, the Insurrection itself and its aftermath, through photographs, a sound archive, music and newspapers from the period.
- 1916 Rising: Personalities and PerspectivesOnline exhibit from the National Library of Ireland provides over 500 images from the Library's collection of books, newspapers, drawings, and proclamations.
- Act of Union Virtual ArchiveCollection of primary source material relevant to the 1801 Act of Union between Ireland and Great Britain includes pamphlets, parliamentary papers, newspaper articles and manuscripts.
- Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921This online exhibition focuses on the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 and draws almost exclusively upon the rich documentary holdings of original Irish Government records held in the National Archives.
- CAIN (Conflict Archive on the INternet)A web site devoted to providing a wide range of information and source material on the Northern Ireland conflict and politics in the region from 1968 to the present.
- House of Commons Parliamentary Papers This link opens in a new windowFull-text access to House of Commons sessional papers from 1715 to the present, with supplementary material back to 1688. Browse by Subject: "Ireland" to retrieve every paper dealing specifically with Ireland, with sections on order and government, agriculture and landholding, trade and industry, and Irish society.
- Views of the FamineTranscriptions of Irish and British newspaper coverage of the famine.