Peter CostelloPeter Costello reports from the National Archives on the release under the 30-year rule of confidential state files from 1985
Every January government files newly transferred from various departments of state to the National Archives are opened for the use of the public on the first working day of the year.
This has become, for the national press, something of an annual event of some importance. Today’s newspapers will be filled largely with political stories, but The Irish Catholic goes a little further and looks into corners of interest neglected by the other media.
The release of the files is seen as a move towards a more open and transparent style of government. But there has never been a government of any kind (the Vatican City included) who have not preferred to keep their secrets as long as possible, if not for ever.
This year files from some eight departments are released: Department of the Taoiseach (including the Northern Ireland division), Finance, Foreign Affairs (including missions abroad), Justice and Law Reform, Social Protection, Office of the Attorney General, Office of the Chief State Solicitor and the Office of the Secretary to the President.
The State Directory, however, lists some 16 government departments, and some 39 state offices. From this it will be clear at once that the annual release, though widely and rightly reported, is only the tip of the very large and hidden iceberg that is the apparatus of the State.
Several important departments rarely produce files: Agriculture, Defence, Health, Transport and Education. All these impinge directly on our lives, our homes and our safety. But we learn little about them.
Once state records were more limited. The National Archives, established in 1988, combines the old State Paper Office, which had been in Dublin Castle, with the Public Record Office (PRO), once housed in a building behind the Four Courts.
Our earliest public records, preserved in the PRO, were destroyed in 1922 by a bomb exploded by Peadar O’Donnell and other Republicans occupying the Four Courts: fragments of medieval documents floated away on the wind along the Liffey.
Other records had been destroyed in 1920 when the IRA burned the Customs House in an attempt to paralyse local government in Ireland. Others were destroyed by the British before Dublin Castle was handed over to the Free State.
Dangers
Nowadays other dangers beset the records. Some are judged of little value, or are merely administrative, and these are destroyed under Section 7 of the National Archives Act 1986. Others are held back, either for reasons of security, sensitivity, or because they are ongoing. Files are only transferred when they are closed.
So what is presented as an exercise in open government is a very limited one.
But as the National Archives are underfunded, under resourced, and understaffed, those directing it are glad that mass transfers do not put too much pressure on the whole system.
With the return of prosperity perhaps now the Government can provide the increased funds for the National Archives, along the lines of similar institutions in the US, France, Britain and elsewhere.
The National Archives is located in Bishop Street, Dublin D08 DF85, beside the Dublin Institute of Technology, Aungier Street. The opening hours are 9.15-17.00 Monday to Friday. The records from 1985 will be available to the public from 9.15am on Monday, January 4, 2016. For further information telephone: + 353 (0)1 407 2300; or email: mail@nationalarchives.ie