Records from 1999 made publicly available online for first time

Almost 250 documents relating to 1999 and earlier years have been added to the CAIN (Conflict Archive on the Internet) website as 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 insight into key events and developments of this period.

It includes:

• The changing nature of politics in Northern Ireland at the end of the 1990s.
• The negotiations aimed at establishing the new political bodies and institutions envisaged under the Good Friday Agreement / Belfast Agreement which had been signed in April 1998.
• The parading issue and in particular events surrounding Drumcree in the summer of 1998.

David Huddleston, PRONI Acting Director, said:

“As PRONI marks its centenary, it is important that we continue to make archives available for everyone. Online access to digitised records allows a worldwide audience to access documents held in Belfast.

“This latest addition of records to CAIN from 1999 follows the events to mark the 25th anniversary of the Belfast Agreement and is a tangible legacy for researchers.”

Dr Brendan Lynn, CAIN Deputy Director and Politics Lecturer at Ulster University, added:

“CAIN is delighted to continue its co-operation with PRONI. The addition of this new material brings the total number of PRONI documents on CAIN to just over 4,250 items. I would like to take the opportunity to thank the Department for  Communities for the funding provided to CAIN, in January 2023, that enabled this latest piece of work to be completed.

“Given that this information is easily available and free of charge it will be of great interest to students, researchers, teachers and lecturers or to anyone looking for information on the recent political and social history of Northern Ireland.”

The records are now available on the CAIN website - CAIN

Notes to editors: 

1. The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) is a division of the Department for Communities and is located at 2 Titanic Boulevard, Titanic Quarter, Belfast. PRONI website.
2. The CAIN website provides an extensive range of information and source material on the conflict and politics from 1968 to the present day. The site is used by a worldwide audience and has received more than 25.8 million visits since it was launched in March 1997.
3. Currently there are more than 4,338 PRONI public records on CAIN and this amounts to approximately 18,240 pages.
4. CAIN is based at Ulster University, within INCORE (International Conflict Research Institute) and the School of Applied Social & Policy Sciences.
5. CAIN is a component of ARK, Access Research Knowledge a resource providing access to social and political material that inform social and political debate in the region and raises the profile of social science research. ARK is based within Ulster University and at Queen’s University Belfast.
6. For media enquiries contact the Department for Communities Press Office on email or the Press Office at Ulster University on email.
7. The Executive Information Service operates an out of hour’s service for media enquiries only between 1800hrs and 0800hrs Monday to Friday and at weekends and public holidays. The duty press officer can be contacted on 028 9037 8110.

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