There was mention of a temporary PRONI closure at an Ottawa Branch of OGS Irish Group meeting last evening.
According to the BBC the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, is moving to headquarters in Belfast's Titanic Quarter in May/June 2011.
The records will be not be available for physical access between September 2010 and May 2011.
There is more detail at Chris Patton's SGNE blog.
Hi JDR,
ReplyDeleteThere is also a temporary closure this year from November 23rd to December 11th, which may be what was alluded to at your meeting. The PRONI site describes this as in preparation for the move to the new premises, but the press officer I spoke to yesterday said it was simply for an annual stock take.
Chris Paton (not Patton! 'Chris Patton' is not a popular name in certain quarters of NI!)
The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland {PRONI} has just announced that it will close all public access to the archives for a period of 9 months from September 2010 to May 2011 to facilitate a move across Belfast to new headquarters presently being built.
ReplyDeleteThis means in effect that no genealogical research of any kind can take place in Northern Ireland for almost 1 year.
This decision is outrageous. The closure time is totally disappropriate to the work involved. Other Archives in London and Dublin has moved with only minimal disruption to services. We in Northern Ireland are launching a campaign to have this closure stopped or curtailed.
With the administrator’s permission can I ask each list member to send a letter of protest to both
The Minister of Culture Arts and Leisure, Nelson McCausland and
the head of PRONI Aileen McClintock, at the following e mail addresses.
Nelson McCausland MLA at dcal@dcalni.gov.uk
http://www.proni.gov.uk/index/feedback.htm
{I think that be a good easy route}
Aileen McClintock at proni@dcalni.gov.uk
If this closure is to be stopped we need not only local, but worldwide support.
Many thanks
Robert Williams