Access to the past - Admirable projects

THE internet has changed our world. It will be one of the tools that shapes our future too and is being used to bring the past to life as well.

Records of all kinds, from birth registers to local authority reports from another time, are readily available to anyone with the curiosity and time to delve through various archives and sites.

That process has been made easier by the Irish Archives Resource website, which is funded by theHeritage Council, who have established an online facility that can immediately direct researchers to the archive that might have the information they require.

Sources as diverse as the Guinness Archives, the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland and UCC’s Boole Library are involved.

The publication by the National Archives of the 1901 and 1911 censuses has shown how popular these innovations can be. It may not be the best moment to talk about funding these projects but the benefits they confer are universal and very worthwhile and should be supported if at all possible.