Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)

I am taking the Adjournment on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Deputy Martin Cullen. I thank Senators Keaveney and Hannigan for raising this matter.

I applaud the well-informed and sincere interest shown by Senators in matters relating to our archival heritage. With regard to the Ballykinlar material and site, I understand that the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure in Northern Ireland does not have ministerial responsibility for the site in question which is still the property of the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence. In the UK the principal repository for records relating to internment camps and prisons in Ireland for the 1914 to 1922 period is the UK national archives in Kew, but not all of these records are currently publicly accessible.

In this jurisdiction, the only State collecting agency with any records of significance in relation to Ballykinlar is the National Library of Ireland in the Seán O'Mahony collection. Mr. O'Mahony is a former bank manager who enthusiastically collected republican memorabilia over many years and the National Library purchased his collection some years ago. During the War of Independence, republican prisoners were interned in the camp at Ballykinlar, County Down, controlled by the British garrison in Ballykinlar Barracks. Prisoners within the camp produced arts and crafts, plays, a journal called The Barbed Wire and their own money tokens. The O'Mahony collection contains copies of some contemporary items from Ballykinlar as well as letters and notes produced while he was researching his own book on the camp. The list of the collection can be viewed on the National Library website under the heading, Manuscripts Collections. I also understand there is a similar collection of Ballykinlar material in Kilmainham Gaol.

Senators will appreciate the financial limitations placed on Departments in relation to new projects that require buildings. However, the collection and the making available of heritage data such as the Senator has mentioned can be made a reality without the need for buildings by means of digitisation and the Internet. In this regard, I am pleased to report that the digitisation of the 1901 and 1911 census returns undertaken by the National Archives in conjunction with its partner, Library and Archives Canada, is progressing well. The Irish census returns of 1901 and 1911 are an extremely valuable part of Irish documentary heritage. They are the individual household returns completed by each head of household and supplementary records created by the census enumerators. These records are an invaluable resource for family historians, genealogists, local historians and other scholars.

The returns for 1901 and 1911 are arranged by townland or, in urban areas, by street. The 1901 census lists for every member of each household the name, age, sex, relationship to head of the household, religion, occupation, marital status and county or country of birth. The census also records an individual's ability to read or write and ability to speak the Irish language. The same information was recorded in the 1911 census, with one significant addition — married women were required to state the number of years they had been married, the number of their children born alive and the number still living. In addition to returns for every household in the country, both censuses contain returns for police and military barracks, public and private asylums, prisons, hospitals, workhouses, colleges, boarding schools and industrial schools, among other institutions.

The Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism launched the first live phase of the project in December 2007. The website www.census.nationalarchives.ie contains the 1911 census returns for Dublin city and county and is free to access online. Ireland is the first of the English-speaking countries to make its census records, with an index to every name, available free online. For the first time, the people of Ireland and the Irish diaspora spread across the globe will be able to search for their ancestors by name. The new website also features a wealth of historical and illustrative material to bring alive the Dublin of 1911. Many beautiful photographs from partners in the project, including the National Library, the Royal Society of Antiquaries, Dublin City Archives, the Railway Records Society and others, are available to view on the website.

This is but the first phase of the project, which will be followed in phases with the digitisation of the remainder of the 1911 census and then the 1901 census. Since Dublin city and county for 1911 went live last December on the National Archives' website, it has resulted in phenomenal interest both in Ireland and abroad, with in excess of 2.5 million site visits and in excess of 39 million hits. It has also resulted in members of the public actively visiting the National Archives premises to make family-tree related inquiries.

Senators will also be interested if I mention the military service pensions project. The State holds nearly 300,000 files in the military archives relating to the period from Easter Week 1916 through the War of Independence and the Civil War up to October 1924. The intention behind this project, which was announced by the Taoiseach in 2006 in the context of the 90th anniversary of the Easter Rising, is to make these records publicly available in the run-up to the 1916 centenary in 2016. Already, a specialist steering committee and an advisory board of historians are working on the project. The data and accounts contained within this archive are second to none in relevance for anyone studying family or other histories in the 1916 and War of Independence period and, undoubtedly, Ballykinlar will feature strongly in the personal stories contained in that archive. These records will greatly enhance our understanding of this period and the people who played a direct role in the historic events.

I note the worthy contributions to this debate and I assure this House that the relevant officials will carefully consider these contributions as projects are progressed. I thank Senators for their interest.