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Ireland’s Lost Archive Comes Back to Life As 194,000 Historical Records Go Online.

More than a century after the destruction of the Public Record Office of Ireland at the Four Courts, another major piece of Ireland’s lost documentary heritage has been restored to public view.

The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland has released 194,000 newly digitised historical records, bringing the total number of freely available records on the platform to 544,000. The material spans seven centuries of Irish history and now amounts to around 340 million words of searchable content.

**Four Courts in Dublin bombarded on this day June 30th 1922 leading to the destruction of the Public Record Office of Ireland**.

The release marks the 104th anniversary of the destruction of the Public Record Office, which was lost on 30 June 1922 during the opening stages of the Irish Civil War. The building, located within the Four Courts complex in Dublin, had housed a vast archive of census material, taxation records, legal papers, land ownership documents and state records dating back to the medieval period.

For generations, the loss was regarded as one of the greatest archival disasters in Irish history. But the Virtual Record Treasury is rebuilding what was lost by tracking down copies, transcripts and related material preserved in archives, libraries and private collections across Ireland and around the world.

The 2026 release includes records ranging from medieval Ireland to the age of revolution and emancipation. Among the new material are records connected to Catholic Emancipation, Ireland’s links with the American Revolution, early local history, State Papers from 1660 to 1715, and documents from the Norman and medieval period.

The project is hosted by Trinity College Dublin and funded by the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport. It brings together more than 100 partner archives, libraries and memory institutions worldwide, including the National Archives of Ireland, the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, The National Archives UK, the Irish Manuscripts Commission and the Library of Trinity College Dublin.

One of the most important developments is the expansion of the VRTI Knowledge Graph for Irish History. This digital research tool now includes more than 15,000 people from Irish history and 3.5 million linked historical facts, allowing users to follow connections between people, places, events and surviving records.

The latest update also adds thousands of historical individuals, including women from the early modern period and figures from the medieval and Norman eras. This gives researchers, students, family historians and the wider public new ways to explore lives that were once buried in fragile, scattered or forgotten documents.

The Virtual Record Treasury is also looking beyond Ireland. A new two-year project, “Journey to Europe: Archives of the Irish in France,” will search French archives for records connected to Irish history, including material on Wolfe Tone, the Irish Brigade, Irish colleges in France and Irish merchants along France’s Atlantic coast.

What was once thought to have vanished in smoke and fire is now being digitally reunited. More than 100 years after records fell from the sky over Dublin, Ireland’s lost archive is being pieced back together — page by page, name by name, and story by story.

The records are free to explore here through the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland.

We Should Be Together.

Lyrics: American country music specialist, record producer and songwriter Allen Reynolds
Vocals: American country music singer, songwriter, and 2010 inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame, the late Donald Ray Williams.

The song hereunder is a lovely country classic made famous by the late Don Williams, still one of the most gentle and respected voices in country music. Don Williams had a way of singing that felt simple, honest, and straight from the heart. His songs often spoke about love, memories, tenderness, and the quiet emotions we sometimes find hard to put into words.
The song “We Should Be Together.” It is a beautiful song about two people who share a special connection and the feeling that, no matter what has happened or how life has turned out, they truly belong with one another.
It carries that warm Don Williams style: calm, sincere, and full of feeling and we hope the song brings back good memories for some of our readers.

We Should Be Together.

I think about you,
When I don’t want to,
Dream about your smiling face,
And I keep trying not to love you,
But I love you anyway.
We should be together, together,
We should be walking side by side,
We should be together, together,
Keeping each other satisfied.
I have thought to come to know you,
I’ve come to need your company,
What will I do if I can’t have you,
If I can’t have you,
What will I do.
We should be together, together,
We should be walking side by side,
We should be together, together,
Keeping each other satisfied.
We should be together, together,
We should be walking side by side,
We should be together, together,
Keeping each other satisfied.

END

Goin’ Back.

Lyrics: American lyricist the late Gerry Goffin (1939 -2014) and former wife American singer-songwriter and musician Carole King.
Vocals: English mezzo-soprano the late Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien (1939 – 1999), better known by her stage name as Dusty Springfield.

Released in 1966, “Goin’ Back” is a beautifully wistful song about memory, innocence, and the longing to reconnect with a simpler part of ourselves. With its gentle build and aching sense of reflection, it has become one of the most beloved recordings of its era, reaching the UK Top 10 and remaining a touchstone for anyone who has ever looked back and wondered what time leaves behind.

Goin’ Back.

I think I’m goin’ back to the things I learned so well in my youth.
I think I’m returning to those days when I was young enough to know the truth.
Now there are no games to only pass the time,
No more coloring books, no Christmas bells to chime,
But thinking young and growing older is no sin,
And I can play the game of life to win.
I can recall the time when I wasn’t ashamed to reach out to a friend,
And now I think I’ve got a lot more than a skipping rope to lend.
Now there’s more to do than watch my sailboat glide.
And everyday can be my magic carpet ride,
And I can play hide and seek with my fears,
And live my days instead of counting my years.
Let everyone debate the true reality,
I’d rather see the world the way it used to be,
A little bit of freedom’s all we lack,
So catch me if you can I’m goin’ back.

END

The Rose.

Lyrics: American singer-songwriter and actress Ms Amanda McBroom.
Vocals: American-Irish folk group The Kells recorded on their album “Celtic Echoes“.

The song hereunder is the much-loved ballad “The Rose,” with lyrics by the American singer-songwriter and actress Amanda McBroom. It is a song that speaks gently but powerfully about love, hope, and the courage to open the heart again.
This version is performed by the American-Irish folk group “The Kells“, whose warm harmonies and Celtic feeling bring a tender new colour to this song. It reminds us that even through darkness and silence, love can still bloom.
So grab a tea/coffee, sit, close your eyes and listen.

The Rose.

Some say, “Love. It is a river,
That drowns the tender reed”.
Some say, “Love. It is a razor,
That leaves your soul to bleed”.
Some say, “Love, It is a hunger,
An endless aching need”,
But I say, “Love, It is a flower,
That grows in the wild green fields,
Beneath the ancient Irish Sky,
Where the soft rain kisses the stone,
Through the longest winter nights,
A single bloom finds its way home”.
When the night has been too lonely,
And the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only,
For the lucky and the strong.
Just remember in the winter,
Far beneath the bitter snow,
Lies the seed that with the sun’s love,
In the spring becomes the rose.
It’s the heart afraid of breaking,
That never learns to dance.
It’s the dream afraid of waking,
That never takes the chance.
It’s the one who won’t be taken,
Who cannot seem to give,
And the soul afraid of dying,
That never learns to live.
Beneath the emerald hills of Erin,
Where the wild roses softly grow,
Through the mist and morning dew,
Hope awakens, soft and slow.
Like the shamrock in the meadow,
Or the fire in an old stone hearth,
Love will bloom when least expected,
And heal the weary heart.
It’s the heart afraid of breaking,
That never learns to dance.
It’s the dream afraid of waking,
That never takes the chance.
It’s the one who won’t be taken,
Who cannot seem to give,
And the soul afraid of dying,
That never learns to live.
When you feel the cold wind calling,
And the darkness closes in,
Hold on to the quiet promise,
That the light will come again.
For every thorn there is a petal,
Every winter has its spring,
Love is born in gentle courage,
And it makes the broken heart sing.
It’s the heart afraid of breaking,
That never learns to dance,
It’s the dream afraid of waking,
That never takes the chance.
So open wide your arms to living,
Let the wild rose bloom inside,
For the soul that dares to love fully,
Is the soul that truly comes alive.
Some say, “Love. It is a river,
But I say love it is the rose”.
The rose; in the Irish wind it grows.

END

The Old Bog Road.

Lyrics: Irish republican and poet, the late Teresa Brayton (1868–1943), born Teresa Coca Boylan, pen name T.B. Kilbrook.
Vocals: Irish singer and entertainer of the country and Irish genre Johnny McEvoy.

The song “The Old Bog Road” is one of those great Irish songs that carries a whole life inside it. The song is written about the longing of someone far from Ireland, thinking back to the place, the people, and the simple road that once meant everything to them.
“The Old Bog Road,” is often thought of as an emigrant’s song, the story of someone far away, longing for home. But that same feeling can sometimes come over elderly people who never crossed an ocean at all; people who left the quiet of the countryside for work in the noise and bustle of a large town/city, and found that something inside them still longed for the fields, the lanes and the old familiar roads.
Anglo-Irish poet Oliver Goldsmith also captured that same feeling beautifully in his poem ‘The Deserted Village’ when he wrote:

“And, as an hare whom hounds and horns pursue,
Pants to the place from whence at first she flew,
I still had hopes, my long vexations past,
Here to return, and die at home at last.”

Same is a powerful image of the heart being driven through life, yet still turning back towards home. And that is the feeling singer Johnny McEvoy brings so tenderly to “The Old Bog Road”; that ache for a place that may be behind us, but is never really gone from us, as I experienced on a visit to Wexford last weekend.

The Old Bog Road.

My feet are here on Broadway,
This blessed harvest morn,
But oh! the ache that’s in them,
For the place where I was born.
My weary hands are blistered,
From working cold and heat,
But oh! to swing a scythe again,
In a field of Irish wheat.
Had I the chance to journey back,
Or own a king’s abode.
I’d rather see the hawthorn tree,
And the Old Bog Road.

My mother died last Spring time,
When Ireland’s fields were green.
The neighbours said her waking,
Was the finest ever seen.
There were snowdrops and primroses,
Piled high beside her bed,
And Ferran’s Church was crowded,
When her funeral Mass was read.
But here was I on Broadway,
Just building bricks by load,
When they carried out her coffin,
Down the Old Bog Road.

Now life’s a weary puzzle,
Past finding out by man,
I take the day for what it’s worth,
And do the best I can.
Since no one cares a rush for me,
What need for me to mourn.
I’ll go my way and draw my pay,
And smoke my pipe alone.
Each human heart must know its grief,
Though bitter be the load.
So God be with you, Ireland,
And the Old Bog Road.

END.