About

The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) is the official archive for Northern Ireland, responsible for the preservation and making available of collections within its care. PRONI was established in 1923 by The Public Record Act (N) 1923. This legislations empowers PRONI to receive records from a wide variety of organisations and individual including the Northern Ireland government, public bodies and private depositors. This unique mix of public and private records makes PRONI unique in the UK and Ireland and a one stop shop for those researching Northern Ireland’s community memory. PRONI is a division within the Engaged Communities Group of the Department for Communities and contributes to Departmental priorities through maximising public benefits from the culture, arts and leisure sectors and tackling disadvantage and promoting equality of opportunity by reducing poverty, promoting and protecting the interests of children, older people, people with disabilities, and other socially excluded groups; addressing inequality and disadvantage.

Heritage

PRONI’s collections include amongst others records of the nine devolved government departments and their predecessor bodies dating from partition onwards. Of particular interest are records of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Northern Ireland Office, Department of Justice, the Northern Ireland Cabinet Office and Central Secretariat. PRONI also holds records created by the Northern Ireland Court Service including inquests, Local Authorities, Schools, Hospitals, political parties and politicians, and records deposited by individuals.