Background to The Chief Secretary’s Office Registered Papers
The Chief Secretary’s Office Registered Papers (CSO/RP) consists of correspondence received between 1818 and 1924 by the office of the Chief Secretary, which oversaw the administration of Ireland following the Act of Union in 1800.
The Lord Lieutenant served as the British monarch’s representative in Ireland and the Chief Secretary’s Office played a crucial political role throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, operating from its headquarters in Dublin Castle.
What’s in the collection?
- Incoming correspondence to the Chief Secretary’s Office ‘registered’ by a clerk
- Letters, petitions, memorials, memoranda, affidavits, recommendations, accounts, reports and returns
- From 1917 onwards, there are records relating to events such as the First World War, compensation by the Rebellion (Victims) Committee and issues related to prisons and hunger strikes
How to access the Chief Secretary’s Office Registered Papers
We are currently cataloguing records from the early and final years of the Chief Secretary’s Office. The Chief Secretary’s Office Registered Papers website and our online catalogue provide access to finding aids for the following years:
- 1818-1833
- 1917
- January – June 1918
Original registers in the Reading Room can be used to search for records from 1835-1924.
The following records, with their indexes and registers, are currently being processed and are not available to researchers
– 1834 Outrage Reports
– 1835 Regular series (Outrage Reports remain open)
– 1918 (July – December)
