Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
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The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) is situated in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is a branch within the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (DCAL).
The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland is distinguished from other archival institutions in the United Kingdom by its unique combination of private and official records. The Record Office is not the Northern Ireland equivalent or imitation of any Great Britain or Republic of Ireland archival institution.
It combines the functions and responsibilities of a range of institutions: it is at the same time Public Record Office, Manuscripts Department of a National Library, County Record Office for the six counties of Northern Ireland, and holder of a large range of private records. This range of remit, embracing, among others, central and local government, the Churches and the private sector, is unique to Northern Ireland.
PRONI was established by the Public Records Act (Northern Ireland), 1923. The new body opened in March 1924 on the fourth floor of a former linen warehouse in central Belfast (at Murray Street). The immediate challenge was to identify and preserve surrogates of records lost in Dublin during the Four Courts fire on June 1922. The first Deputy Keeper, Dr David A. Chart was able to replace many of these records by approaching solicitors, business people, politicians, churches and the landed aristocracy.
The success of Chart’s acquisition policy meant that PRONI needed more storage space. In April 1933, the office moved to a new central Belfast location, the first floor of the new Royal Courts of Justice in Chichester Street. However, it was not until 1965, that the Ministry of Finance would approve an actual new building. This new building, opened in 1972, at Balmoral Avenue was the first new record office to be built in the UK since the Public Record Office in London was erected in 1838.
Between 1924 and 1982 PRONI was part of the Ministry (later Department) of Finance. The functions were then transferred to the Department of the Environment (DOE), and in 1995, PRONI became an executive agency within the DOE. With the restoration of devolved government in 1999, PRONI became an agency within the new Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (DCAL). The department brought together for the first time overall responsibility for libraries, museums and archives. As part of the implementation of the Review of Public Administration, PRONI ceased to be an agency in 2006 and became a division within the core department.
PRONIs most important function is the acquisition and cataloguing of non government records. The Private Records section is consequently staffed by the most erudite and personable professional staff.
PRONI currently holds 54 kilometres of shelf-filled records. In September 2010, PRONI will again move to new purpose built premises at Titanic Boulevard in the Titanic Quarter of Belfast.
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Coordinates: 54°33′58.57″N 5°57′32.28″W / 54.5662694°N 5.9589667°W
