Main stories
In 2023/24, there were 7,091 linear feet of records reviewed to assess their suitability for preservation.
There were 10,549 items published in PRONI’s electronic catalogue in 2023/24 which contains over 1.5 million item descriptions.
In 2023/24, there were a total of 16,060 visits to PRONI. These visits included use of the search and reading rooms, group visits and attendance at organised events.
There were 6 million page views of PRONI’s website in 2023/24.
Introduction
The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) is the official archive for Northern Ireland. It aims to identify and preserve records of historical, social and cultural importance and make them available for the information, education and enjoyment of the public.
PRONI is the official place of deposit for public records in Northern Ireland. In addition, it collects a wide range of archives from private sources. PRONI also advises on and promotes best practice in archive and records management to ensure that today’s records will be available for future generations. PRONI is located in Titanic Quarter, Belfast and provides a reading room and search room for visitors.
These statistics provide a broad overview of PRONI. The data presented covers 2023/24 and, where appropriate, other years are also included.
There are approximately three million documents stored in the archives at PRONI which fall under the categories of either public or private records. PRONI’s oldest document is a bull of Pope Honorius III, dated 1219.
PRONI hosts four General Register Office of Northern Ireland (GRONI) terminals which allow users direct access to GRONI’s most up to date Births, Marriages and Deaths database. PRONI also makes available free access to Ancestry, Find My Past, British Newspaper Archive and Irish State Papers.
PRONI marked its centenary during 2023/24 through a programme of flagship public events.
Welcome to PRONI banner depicting the PRONI 100 branding.
Receiving and preserving records
Records reviewed, catalogued and published
Public authority records which are judged to be of lasting value are moved to PRONI for permanent preservation. PRONI also receives records from non-government sources e.g. churches, businesses, charities and families.
Potential deposits are reviewed to assess their suitability for preservation. Records to be preserved by PRONI are accessioned, and recorded as new additions to the archive. This involves assigning a reference number and recording information about the collection e.g. a summary description and relevant dates. Once accessioned, the records are stored and catalogued. Cataloguing involves creating descriptions of the record/group of records in the PRONI catalogue.
PRONI store physical records for review and preservation in standard boxes, measuring one foot in length, PRONI use this to give a measure of linear feet of records reviewed and preserved. The measurement demonstrates the amount of space freed up in storage areas in Government Departments and other public authorities. As records can be of various levels of complexity, PRONI rank each box (easy, medium, and difficult) to give an additional measure of units reviewed and preserved.
HRH The Duke of Gloucester with records staff during a visit to PRONI as part of the centenary programme.
In 2023/24, 7,091 linear feet of records were reviewed by PRONI. There were 511 linear feet of records (156 linear meters) and 93 units of records catalogued in 2023/24.
The catalogue summarises the scope and content of PRONI’s archives and contains over 1.5 million catalogue item descriptions. A snapshot of the catalogue is made available to the public via PRONI’s electronic catalogue (eCatalogue). There were 14,083 new items added to the PRONI eCatalogue in 2023/24 and 10,549 items published in PRONI’s eCatalogue, of which 8,728 items were published in the eCatalogue for the first time.
Available collections
PRONI holds millions of documents that relate chiefly, but not exclusively, to Northern Ireland. The records held in PRONI fall into two main categories:
Public recordsPRONI holds public records mainly dating from the formation of Northern Ireland (1921) to the present day. However, a significant number of records also date back to the nineteenth century, and some to the eighteenth century, including the archives of courts, schools, Board of Guardians, Ordnance Survey, land registry and valuation records, hospitals including asylums, local authorities and prisons.
Private recordsPRONI also holds a diverse range of privately deposited records such as letters, journals, diaries, photographs and albums. There are also extensive archives of churches, landed estates, businesses, charities, sporting bodies, and political parties.
Before conservation work on the register (1418-1438) of Primate John Swayne, Archbishop of Armagh.
After conservation work on the register (1418-1438) of Primate John Swayne, Archbishop of Armagh.
Digital preservation
The primary aim of PRONI’s Digital Repository is to store, preserve and provide access, where possible, to digital records. The records received by PRONI are created by government departments, public sector bodies and private depositors. The digital records and associated metadata are stored permanently in PRONI’s Digital Repository. Access copies are created for digital records which are open to the public and are made available through PRONI’s online web application, eCatalogue, and the onsite electronic catalogue system, CALM.
In 2023/24, 1,050 digital records were published via PRONI’s electronic catalogue, 1,336 digital records were published via CALM and 11,375 digital records were processed to PRONI’s Digital Repository. A digitised volume may be comprised of hundreds of individual records (tiff files) in the Digital Repository whereas the access copy made available to the public via the eCatalogue or CALM is a single pdf file containing multiple pages.
In 2023/24, PRONI, in partnership with NI Screen and under the terms of an agreement with ITV, continued to hold UTV’s film and tape archive, to digitise and preserve key elements of this archive and encourage public engagement with the content within it. This archive consists of approximately 70,000 films and tapes, and a playback room is located on the ground floor of the PRONI building. In 2023/24, a total of 578 film reels and tapes were digitised and accessioned into PRONI and 545 of these were processed to PRONI’s Digital Repository. In 2023/24, PRONI and NI Screen continued to collaborate on a major digitisation project to preserve the content of over 6,000 tapes from the UTV archive that were at risk of degradation. The project was led by the British Film Institute and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Web archivePRONI provides a web archiving service whereby a selection of websites from across Northern Ireland’s public sector are harvested from the internet and stored in the PRONI Web Archive. Privately funded websites may also be included where the content is considered appropriate for inclusion. A selection of Northern Ireland websites are harvested each year using a web crawler. In 2023/24, 253 web crawls were published on the PRONI Web Archive and 218 individual websites were crawled.
Gavin Robinson MP, Gordon Lyons MLA and Lorraine Bourke, Private Records reviewing a display of original documents.
Digital images
One method of preserving is capturing images of the records digitally. Making digital copies allows the information to be accessed without the original record being handled and also allows access by more than one person at a time. Many collections of records are now available online. Increasingly, more time and professional expertise is required to produce an enhanced image suitable for wider access, in addition to the preservation master copy. The images generated include the master copy, a high resolution restored image for archival purposes and a small image (usually in jpeg or pdf format) for access purposes.
In 2023/24, there were 59,320 digital frames captured resulting in 72,966 image files being generated.
The table below provides a breakdown of the number of digital frames captured for specific collections that were digitised in 2023/24.
| Project | Number |
|---|---|
| Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland Project. A collaborative project led by Trinity College, Dublin, and partners National Archives Ireland and National Archives UK, which identifies surrogates and copies of records destroyed in the fire at the Public Record Office of Ireland in Dublin in 1922 | 8,274 |
| PRONI 100 - A project celebrating the centenary of PRONI | 5,580 |
| CAIN - Records relating to the Northern Ireland Troubles which are populated on the Conflict Archive on the Internet | 3,124 |
| Copies requested by general public | 434 |
| Church Records | 430 |
| Diocesean records | 693 |
| Manatee Project | 530 |
| Harland and Wolff records | 325 |
| School records | 133 |
| Miscellaneous | 994 |
| Truth Recovery Programme (TEO funded) | 18,747 |
| Victims Payment Board (TEO funded) | 2,504 |
| Historical Instiutional Abuse Redress Board (TEO funded) | 5,747 |
| Court and other related records (required for access to information requests) | 11,805 |
| Number of digital images captured | 59,320 |
The Digital Asset Management System (DAMS) is a multi-tenant platform used across the Northern Ireland Civil Service for capturing digital and video assets and making them available for staff usage. PRONI adds items of high public demand on to the DAMS which can be reused for public orders, publications, talks or exhibitions. In 2023/24, PRONI added 1,986 items to the DAMS bringing the total to over 12,000 searchable images.
Before conservation on the Bellew archive, title deed, Kilmainham dated 1351, PRONI Ref. D430/4.
After conservation work on the Bellew archive, title deed, Kilmainham dated 1351, PRONI Ref. D430/4.
Making records available to the public
Document production
Anyone can access documents in PRONI. By registering with PRONI, visitors can request documents through the onsite ordering system. In 2023/24, there were 19,376 documents requested and produced.
PRONI has a number of targets to measure performance. Original documents requested by visitors are retrieved from the stores, produced in the Reading Room for consultation and then returned to their designated locations in the stores.
The document production target for PRONI states that 94% of documents should be produced within 30 minutes of being requested. In 2023/24, 96% of documents were produced within 30 minutes. The average retrieval time per order was 16 minutes.
PRONI staff at PRONI 100 centenary birthday event.
Written requests received from the Public
In 2023/24, the written correspondence target for PRONI’s Public Services branch stated that 95% of written enquiries for open material should be responded to within 20 days. For Records Management, Cataloguing and Access branch 80% of requests should be responded to within 20 days.
There were 3,332 written enquiries to PRONI’s Public Services branch in 2023/24. All queries were answered, with 98% of responses to written correspondence meeting the target. For Records Management, Cataloguing and Access branch, 89% of the responses to the 491 written correspondence enquiries met the target.
Written requests received from Public Authorities
Records Management, Cataloguing and Access Team (RMCAT) received 215 official requests from Public Authorities seeking access to information contained in transferred historical records which are not open and not readily accessible. These requests can be received from Northern Ireland Executive Departments and other public bodies.
Since April 2020, PRONI has been required to respond to requests from the Historical Institutional Abuse Redress Board and provide any requested information within 5 days. Between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024 PRONI responded to 76% of the 527 requests received within the 5 day target. PRONI responded to 100% of requests within 20 days.
Since September 2021, PRONI has also been required to respond to requests from the Victims Payment Board and provide any requested information within a 4 week target. Due to the large volume of requests received from the Victims Payment Board during the reporting period, an agreement was reached between PRONI and the Victims Payment Board to extend the 4 week target to a maximum of 12 weeks to allow PRONI to respond appropriately. In June 2023 this was reduced to 6 weeks and was further reduced in October 2023 to the original 4 week target. Between 1 April 2023 and 30 September 2023 PRONI responded to 100% of the 625 requests received within the 6 week target and between 1 October 2023 and 31 March 2024 PRONI responded to 100% of the 291 requests received within the 4 week target.
From November 2022, a number of PRONI RMCAT staff have assisted the TEO-led Truth Recovery Programme on a special project relating to the records of former Mother and Baby Institutions, Magdalene Laundries and Workhouses in Northern Ireland (1922-1995). This work supported the plans for a Public Inquiry and Redress scheme. A ten-person Independent Panel are currently investigating the practices of these, and related welfare organisations in both public and voluntary sectors. The Panel will present its final evidential report to the Assembly in Spring 2026. The PRONI team are supporting this work by gathering, cataloguing and preserving (usually through creation of digital surrogates) relevant records and archives. Statistics on this work will be provided following the publication of the Independent Panel’s final report.
Engaged Communities Group Deputy Secretary, Department for Communities, Emer Morelli visiting PRONI.
PRONI website
Search the archives online
PRONI has a programme of digitising significant archives to make them
accessible to the public online. The PRONI website provides a number of
applications allowing users to search the archives:
- eCatalogue
- Freeholders’ records
- Londonderry Corporation Records
- Name Search
- PRONI Historical Maps viewer
- PRONI Web Archive
- Street directories
- Ulster Covenant
- Valuation Revision Books
- Will calendars
Ulster Historical Foundation and guests visiting PRONI.
Image Gallery
Images from the PRONI archives are available to view on the
photo-sharing website Flickr. No new
photographs were added to the stream in 2023/24 as the priority for
digitisation has been to populate DAMS.
Facebook
PRONI publishes a number of new Facebook posts each week. Posts include
promoting new events, reminders of upcoming events and drawing attention
to PRONI’s resources and services. Popular posts have included ‘Map
Monday’ and ‘On this Day’. By March 2024, PRONI had 8.5K followers on
Facebook, an increase of 1,090 on the previous year.
X (formerly Twitter)
PRONI publishes tweets throughout the week on X. By March 2024, PRONI
had 3,665 followers on X, an increase of 465 on the previous year.
Instagram
By March 2024, PRONI had 1,764 followers on Instagram, an increase of
375.
YouTube
PRONI aims to record its public events and talks when possible. These
recordings are continuously being collected and added to PRONI’s YouTube
channel. In 2023/24, an additional 39 talks were made available on
PRONI’s YouTube channel. The Channel received 31,150 views with 475,643
impressions during this year. PRONI had 2,545 subscribers on YouTube, an
increase of 302 on the previous year.
PRONI Express
PRONI’s monthly eNewsletter, the PRONI Express, includes information of
forthcoming talks, events and new resources. Members of the public can
subscribe to receive the eNewsletter at the following link: https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/services/subscribe-pronis-enewsletter.
At the end of 2023/24, 6,511 people had subscribed to receive the PRONI
Express (eNewsletter).
Launch of the Ulster Scots and the Declaration of Independence Exhibition by Joe Kennedy III, US Special Envoy to Northern Ireland.
Release of Government Files
Each year, PRONI makes historical government records publicly available; generally these are the files of NI Departments and the Northern Ireland Office (Belfast). The annual release of selected official files continues against a background of greater public access through the Freedom of Information Act 2000, balanced against the need to protect personal information.
Annually since 1976, official records held by PRONI which were 30 years old have been reviewed with a view to making them publicly available (“the 30 year rule”). In September 2011, the Assembly accepted a Legislative Consent Motion to reduce the time limit for release from 30 years to 20 years (“the 20 year Rule”). This is underpinned by the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the amendments made to it by the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012. The 20 year rule is being phased in over 10 years, with two years of records being reviewed and released each year. During 2023/24, the records of NI Departments with terminal dates of 2000 and 2001 were brought forward for release in August and December 2023. This process involves the referral of the files to the Responsible Authority for sensitivity review. This entails a page by page examination to ensure that a record contains nothing sensitive as defined by the Freedom of Information Act and the Data Protection Act.
A total of 1,151 government files were released in August and December 2023. Of these, 307 files had some information blanked out, with the main reason for this being to protect personal information.
PRONI on CAIN
The PRONI at CAIN (Conflict Archive on the Internet) partnership publishes conflict-related documents selected from the Northern Ireland Office and NI Departmental files. CAIN is hosted by Ulster University. In 2023/24, almost 250 documents selected from files dating from 1999 were added to CAIN. By 31 March 2024, there were 4,250 PRONI documents available to view on CAIN.
Former President Bill Clinton looking at the original Belfast/Good Friday Agreement at Queen’s University Belfast.
Visitors and visits
New visitors
There were 3,022 new visitors registered in PRONI in 2023/24. In total, 52% of new visitors were female and 48% were male. In 2023/24, 52% of new visitors registered were aged between 25 and 64 years, whilst 41% were aged 65 years and over and 5% were under 25 years of age. Note that 2% of new visitors did not specify their age when registering.
In 2023/24, 52% of new visitors were from outside Northern Ireland, with 18% from USA, 11% from England and Wales, 7% from Canada and 6% from Australia and New Zealand.
Visitors to PRONI
PRONI is committed to improving and increasing cultural participation. A series of public lectures, events and group visits takes place throughout the year. PRONI marked its centenary on 19 June 2024 and branded the entire financial year, 2023-2024 as PRONI 100. PRONI held a number of high profile events and launched the PRONI 100 treasures. The PRONI 100 Treasures illustrates the diversity of the archive, and reflects the people, places and events that have shaped Northern Ireland’s society and communities today.
The launch of PRONI 100 Treasures at The Future of Archives – The next 100 event.
In 2023/24, there were a total of 16,060 visits to PRONI. There were 7,594 visits by the public in 2023/24 to the Search room / Reading room in PRONI and there were 49 group visits comprising 1,152 visitors. PRONI delivered 68 onsite and virtual events in 2023/24 which were attended by 7,314 members of the public. PRONI held 10 temporary exhibitions in 2023/24.
PRONI Forum members at the Ulster Scots and the Declaration of Independence exhibition.
Continuous Household Survey
- In 2023/24, 5% of adults had used PRONI services within the previous year, the same as the 2022/23 figure.
- In 2023/24, adults aged 45 and over were more likely to have used PRONI services (6%) than those aged 44 and under (4%) in the last 12 months.
- Adults with dependants were less likely to have used PRONI services compared to those without dependants (6% and 4% respectively).
- Similarly, adults living in the most deprived areas were less likely to have used PRONI services compared to adults living in the least deprived areas (2% and 8% respectively).
More information relating to the Continuous Household Survey (CHS), methodology, definitions and the interpretation of the figures can be found in the report entitled Engagement in culture, arts, heritage and sport by adults in Northern Ireland 2023/24 (Definitions and technical notes section).
PRONI at the Balmoral show.
PRONI website page views
There were 6 million page views of the PRONI website in 2023/24. By application most views were to the eCatalogue, followed by Will Calendars and Valuation Revision books.
Customer feedback
PRONI receives customer feedback via email/letter. Collection of feedback is detailed on its website (Your comments or complaints).
Just dropping a note to thank you and all the PRONI staff for your great assistance during my PRONI visit last week, Tuesday – Friday. All the staff I encountered were tremendously helpful, and my research trip was very successful, uncovering some interesting new sources for the […] project. I greatly appreciate the efforts made by all staff members to make records available to me for imaging. Best wishes, and I hope to make another visit to the Archive soon.
We had a truly brilliant team tour of PRONI today, the teams did a fantastic job and really took the time to indulge all our questions, of which there were many. Thank you for having us along and to […] for doing all the organising - you have something really special at PRONI and it was lovely to see it all.
Hi […], just wanted to say a sincere thankyou to you and […] as our hosts, and all our colleagues at PRONI who gave us their time and insight at our visit this week.Everyone was struck again by the professionalism and commitment of all those we met, and the range of records we were shown really underlined and brought to life the importance of what you do. I personally found the letter from the two Austrian Jewish sisters in 1938 and the quote from […] on the GFA cards to be really moving. I’d be grateful if this could be passed on and thanks so much again, best regards.
A big thank you for your time on the day it is very much appreciated and a pleasure to meet you both. I was amazed by the site and the documents you showed me on the day I can’t wait to visit next time and see some more of the treasures you have behind the doors. You must be very proud of the work you and your teams do what an amazing place to work.
Additional comments received at PRONI on Tour, Larne Library.
- Excellent Opportunity to view these important records. Do repeat please with much more material
- I want to find out more about my family tree
- Fascinating display, charming staff and very good information. It needs to be advertised more widely
- Fabulous display and lots of interesting facts. Highly recommended.
PRONI staff taking the original Belfast/Good Friday Agreement on Tour.
Glossary
eCatalogue - The eCatalogue is a fully searchable database containing over 1.5 million catalogue entries in PRONI’s archives.
Freeholders’ records - Freeholders were men who either owned their land outright or who held it in a lease for the duration of their life, or the lives of other people named in the lease. The freeholders’ records application includes pre-1840 freeholders’ registers and poll books.
Name Search - The Name Search database is a searchable index listing pre-1858 diocesan wills and administration bonds; and surviving fragments of the 1740 and 1766 religious census returns and 1775 dissenters petitions.
Street Directories - Searchable database and associated digitised images of Belfast and Ulster Street Indexes, 1819-1900 listing names of principal inhabitants, merchants, shopkeepers, etc.
Ulster Covenant - The archive of the Ulster Unionist Council, held by PRONI, has just under half a million original signatures and addresses of the men and women who signed the Ulster Covenant or corresponding women’s declaration on 28 September 1912.
Valuation revision books - PRONI holds valuation records relating to the valuation of property in Northern Ireland from the 1830s to 1993. The original purpose was, and remains, the assessment of every building and every piece of land and an estimation of its financial value.
Web archive - PRONI manages a programme to capture and preserve a selection of Northern Ireland’s websites that are of historical and cultural importance to Northern Ireland. The Internet Archive carries out the technical web archiving and hosting process on behalf of PRONI.
Will calendars - Searchable catalogue of will calendar entries for the period 1858-1965.
Technical notes
- Figures less than 0.5% are denoted by ‘0’, while no responses are represented by ‘-’.
- Percentages may not add to 100% due to rounding.
- Data is validated by PRONI on an ongoing basis and quality assured by DfC Analytics Division.
- One linear foot is 0.3 of a metre.
Official Statistics
Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics
Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and
value in the
Code of
Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics
should adhere to. Contact us directly with any comments about how we
meet these standards -
email:analyticsdivision@communities-ni.gov.uk.
Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing
regulation@statistics.gov.uk
or via the OSR
website.