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The records of the Chief Secretary of Ireland’s Office constitute one of the most valuable collections of original source material for research into Ireland in the nineteenth and early twentieth century.

This project by the National Archives, Ireland aims to catalogue to international archival standards, the registered papers of the Chief Secretary’s Office from 1818 to 1852, and to offer these catalogues online in order to facilitate public access.

The registered papers mainly comprise incoming correspondence of the Chief Secretary’s Office ‘registered’ by a clerk in that office. The correspondence consists of letters, petitions, memorials, memoranda, affidavits, recommendations, accounts, reports, and returns. Official government correspondence appears side by side with unofficial correspondence from private citizens from all strata of society and concerning all manner of topics. The papers, therefore, offer a rich source for scholars of Irish political, social, economic, labour, and women’s history, as well as for local historians and genealogists.

The project is funded by a bequest from the late Professor Francis J Crowley, professor of French at the University of California, Los Angeles and son of Irish-born parents. Professor Crowley bequeathed most of his estate to the Republic of Ireland to be used for the preservation of records of the history of the Irish people. Work commenced on the project in September 2008 and has continued until the present day.

Catalogues for the years 1818-1833 are now available on this website. These items are available for consultation at the reading room of the National Archives, Ireland, subject to the normal regulations and procedures of the National Archives.