Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
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Local authority records

PRONI event at the John Hewitt Bar, Belfast PRONI exhibtion of documents relating to China Talk in the PRONI lecture room
Sketched map of the County of Antrim showing urban & rural Districts as established by the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898. PRONI Ref. LA/1/50.
Sketch Map of the County of Antrim showing Urban & Rural Districts as established by Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898
PRONI Reference LA/1/50
Local Authority records constitute a rich vein amongst PRONI's holdings, drawing as they do on the full range of deposits, private and official. With approximately two shelf miles of local government records, PRONI's holdings cover every aspect of local administration in Ireland from parish vestries to the records of the Borough and Urban District Councils.
Material relating to Manor Courts, Grand Juries, Boards of Guardians and Town Commissioners are all represented in PRONI collections. Many of these records predate the seventeenth century so the researcher has a rich source from which a fuller picture of the evolution of local government in Ireland, or within a particular county or parish, can be created.
Whether one is interested in local history or the impact of national events on an individual area such as the Great Famine, parliamentary reform or partition, the wide range of local government records in PRONI offers a rich source of original and unique information.

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