Sources in the National Archives for researching the Great Famine by Marianne Cosgrave, Rena Lohan and Tom Quinlan: Introduction
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Administration during the Famine
The Great Famine imposed a severe strain on the Irish government. Of the various offices and boards that constituted the Irish administration, the ones which were affected in a very direct way were:
| The Chief Secretary's Office |
| The Poor Law Commission |
| The Relief Commission |
| The Office of Public Works |
Additional online resources
Relief Commission Papers database, 1845-1847
A large amount of related material may also be found in the article Sources in the National Archives for research into the transportation of Irish convicts to Australia (1791-1853)
Ireland-Australia transportation database
This article is an attempt to bring to the attention of those interested in Famine research - whether at local or national level - collections in the National Archives which span the Famine period. These collections - information on which is provided via the links in the table above - not only document the actual measures taken to alleviate distress, but are also an invaluable source for other types of research, such as an analysis both of the extent of distress and of government response at local level, as well as the degree to which prevailing theories of government had an impact on the administration of relief.
Irish Archives
The following pages are an online version of the article Sources in the National Archives for researching the Great Famine by Marianne Cosgrave, Rena Lohan and Tom Quinlan. The complete printed version with illustrative examples of the document types mentioned, appears in Irish Archives, the Journal of the Irish Society for Archives, Spring 1995.