Online Exhibitions

In celebration of Queen Elizabeth II's historic visit to Northern Ireland on the 27th June 2012, PRONI has collected photographs from our archives of a previous royal visit. Travelling with her new husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Queen visited Belfast in May 1949, when she was still Princess Elizabeth, to receive the Freedom of the City.

Enter our Royal Visit online exhibition>>>>

The first convict ships from Britain reached Sydney Harbour in January, 1788, most likely with people of Irish birth on board. The first convicts directly from Ireland, 133 men and 22 women, arrived on the 'Queen' on 26 September, 1791, beginning an association between Ireland and Australia that lasts to this day.

This online exhibition covers the period 1788 to 1901 concentrating on those from the North of Ireland (and their descendants) who contributed to making of the Commonwealth of Australia by using a range of records held in PRONI such as photographs, sketches, maps and poignant emigrant letters

19th Century Emigration to the North Americas

According to the historian David Fitzpatrick, Ireland during the nineteenth century 'was a land which most people wanted to leave'.

But why? Where did they go? And what did they find when they got there? PRONI has joined forces with the Belfast Telegraph to answer those questions and many others.

Concentrating on emigration to America and Canada, our exhibition uses letters, diary extracts and illustrations to trace the steps of the emigrants, from their decision to leave right through to their arrival in 'the promised land'.

Between 1800 and 1900, almost 8 million people bade farewell to their Irish home in search of new lives in a new world. Why? Enter our online exhibition and discover for yourself.

PRONI on the Record illustrates the wide range of material deposited at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI)

Unline any other UK institution PRONI combines the functions of a whole range of institutions - a Public Record Office, Manuscripts Department of a National Library and County Record Office for Northern Ireland all in one.

PRONI on the Record demonstrates why the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland is of invaluable benefit to students, genealogists and members of the public by showing the wealth of history that we hold here.

The ‘Hidden Connections: Ulster and Slavery, 1807-2007’ exhibition to mark the bi-centenary of the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire ran in a number of venues throughout Northern Ireland. Curated by PRONI and launched in November 2007 in the Linen Hall Library, the exhibition drew on documents from PRONI’s archives, artefacts from the Ulster Museum and contemporary books and pamphlets from the Linen Hall Library and elsewhere. A catalogue Ulster and Slavery (4.2MB) was produced. It includes an extensive appendix listing the references to slavery to be found in the various archives held in PRONI.