Old Irish Mysteries Could be Solved as Historic Records Restored

[Ladybbird]

Old Irish Mysteries Could be Solved as Historic Records From Dublin's Four Courts Restored

A virtual reconstruction of Dublin's Four Courts and its archives is set to be unveiled in June.

Irish Central 28 MAY 2022.








Up until now, it was widely held that the bombing and destruction of the Four Courts in Dublin in June 1922 had destroyed generations of documents about Irish history forever.



But now, seven centuries of missing Irish historical documents will be on display in Dublin starting on June 27.

The Guardian newspaper reports, “Digital wizardry and academic sleuthing have helped recreate a cultural treasure severely damaged in the conflict in 1922.”

To say this is extraordinary news would be to play the development down. It is downright incredible.


With hundreds of thousands of new historical documents recreated, one major question springs to mind – will we find out who the paid Irish informers were who devastated such organizations as the United Irishmen, the Fenians, and the 1916 Easter Rising army? The British, it seems, recorded everything and may well have left evidence of their dealings with informers.

The burning of the Four Courts was a national disaster. Imagine the National Archives Museum in Washington with its founding father's artifacts being destroyed and you get a sense of the dreadful damage.

In the Four Courts were documents from the Norman invasion of 1169 up to 1922 contained in a six-story building beside the River Liffey. The Republicans who wanted to fight on and ignored the treaty were holed up there amid the records.

Ironically, it was Michael Collins, under extraordinary pressure from Winston Churchill, the British secretary of state for war, who gave the orders to fire. An exploding shell fell on the Republicans’ arms dump, and the subsequent firestorm destroyed the Four Courts.

“At one stroke, the records of centuries have passed into oblivion,” said Herbert Wood, deputy keeper of the public records.