PRONI Records on CAIN
A selection of digital versions of records held by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) have been made available on the CAIN (Conflict Archive on the INternet) website.
What CAIN is
The CAIN (Conflict Archive on the INternet) website was launched in 1997 with the aim of providing information and source material on the 'Troubles' and politics in Northern Ireland from 1968 to the present day. The site has been widely used by academic researchers and others working in areas such as historical, cultural, conflict resolution, peace-studies and Irish studies.
PRONI records on CAIN
Since it was launched CAIN has encouraged external contributors to the site and in 2009 CAIN approached PRONI and proposed that a selection of public records might be digitised and made available on the website. Those items covered under the 'Annual Release' scheme, about the 'Troubles' and Northern Ireland politics post 1968, were of particular interest to CAIN. Making this material available electronically supports both CAIN's objectives and PRONI's aim of making records available to as wide an audience as possible.
Available records
PRONI records available on CAIN relate to the conflict and politics in Northern Ireland. The records mainly cover the years 1968 to 1999 with some additional records from 1964 and 1965 about the issue of education. There are over 4,000 PRONI public records on CAIN which amounts to about 17,000 pages.
The records continue to be added to in line with PRONI's latest annual releases and include files from a range of government departments including the Cabinet Secretariat, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Department of the Prime Minister.
The PRONI records can be accessed via a dedicated portal site, within the main CAIN website called 'PRONI Records on CAIN'.