Public records dating from 2000 and 2001 relating to the establishment of new political institutions in Northern Ireland as well as earlier years have been added to the CAIN (Conflict Archive on the Internet) website.
This is part of ongoing work involving the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) and Ulster University.
The new material, which until now has not been accessible to the public online, provides insights into events and developments of this period.
It includes:
- The initial efforts to establish some measure of governance under the new political bodies and institutions established in April 1998 under the Good Friday Agreement / Belfast Agreement.
- Development of policies in relation to issues such as victims and language.
- The potential development of a national sports stadium.
- Responses to major international and national events in 2001 such as the attack on the World Trade Centre in September and the foot and mouth crisis earlier in the year.
David Huddleston, PRONI Acting Director, highlights the importance of the continued collaborative project between PRONI and Ulster University:
“PRONI’s work with CAIN and the ongoing digitisation of historical records has resulted in these unique records becoming accessible for the first time to a global audience. This latest set of official records dating from 2000 and 2001, which are now freely available to view, help to further the understanding of our recent past by showing the details and thinking behind political developments.
"The PRONI on CAIN resource contains a significant volume of archive material dating from the 1960s to 2001 and I welcome the ongoing collaboration with Ulster University which has made this possible.”
Dr Brendan Lynn, CAIN Deputy Director and Politics Lecturer at Ulster University, added:
“CAIN is pleased to be able to continue its partnership with PRONI. The addition of this new material brings the total number of PRONI documents to just over 4,610 items. On behalf of CAIN, I want to thank the Department for Communities for the funding it provided back in January 2024, that enabled this latest piece of work to be completed”.