The archives of the Office of Public Works and their value as a source for local history by Rena Lohan

Introduction | Historical background | Using the archives | The archives

1 Introduction

Despite a certain credibility problem, due partly to the lack of a precise definition, local history is fast becoming a valid and worthwhile branch of historical research. Therefore, like all other fields within the discipline, its success will be determined by the quality of analysis and interpretation of primary sources. Whether simply chronicling a series of events over time in a particular locality, or whether attempting to challenge the validity of established notions of what happened in the past by an analysis of the response of a small community to major historical events, a rich source base is essential.

The archives of the Office of Public Works serve the local historian well in this regard. Due to the organisation's responsibility in the management and disposal of public funds for local projects, ranging from large undertakings involving extensive engineering works and the employment of vast numbers, to small coastal projects provided under distress legislation, there is scarcely a townland in the country with which it has not had contact over the last 160 years. Secondly, availability of the records for public inspection is guaranteed, as they come within the terms of the National Archives Act of 1986, which provides for the transfer of all government records over thirty years old to the National Archives.

The best way to inform the reader of the value of this collection is by first of all giving a short historical background to the organisation (see section 2). This will be followed by an explanation of the way in which its records accumulated over the course of the nineteenth century. Comprising upwards of 2,000 bound volumes (such as registers, minute books and letter books), several hundred thousand manuscript and typewritten documents, and an extensive range of architectural and engineering drawings, the collection mirrors well the activities in which the organisation engaged. The way in which the documents are arranged will also be examined, and there will be a description of the finding aids necessary for their use (see section 3).

As a discussion of the surviving material relating to all the Board's activities would be impossible, what follows instead is an examination of the surviving documents relating to activities which show to greatest advantage the value of the collection for local history, namely fishery piers and harbours, national monuments, schools, labourers' housing, teachers' residences, and railways. The historical background relating to these items will precede the discussion of the documents here rather than in section 2 (see section 4). It should be remembered that the material so described does not constitute the entire body of records relating to that particular subject, but is merely a small sample. Preference has also been given to nineteenth century material. (To avoid needless repetition of the full title of the organisation, the terms Board and Board of Works are used to denote the Office of Public Works.)

Irish Archives

The following pages are an online version of the article The archives of the Office of Public Works and their value for local history by Rena Lohan. The complete printed version with illustrative examples of the document types mentioned, appears in Irish Archives, the Journal of the Irish Society for Archives, Autumn 1994.