Latest cataloguing

143 units of records have been catalogued during April to June 2009. The private record highlights include: the cataloguing of the Black Family papers (D4457). This collection of 361 letters, 1673-1868, chronicled the lives of a prosperous Belfast mercantile family which had family connections in Belfast, Dublin, Edinburgh, Bordeaux, Cadiz, London, Isle of Man and the West Indies. The Thompson and McClintock Papers, D1711, contain a range of documents, c.1845-1930, relating to Dr Thompson, a Tyrone County Hospital surgeon. Amongst the papers are political speeches relating to his failed attempt to be elected Unionist Candidate for Mid-Tyrone, as well as his successful election as MP for North Monaghan. The archive also includes family connections to the McClintocks of Seskinore, as well as material, including photographs, relating to the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in South Africa, the Boer War, and the Nigerian Army Mutiny. Another collection relates to the court case of William Orr, D4391, and his subsequent removal to the penal colony of Botany Bay, from where he escaped by way of Malaysia, 1799-1835.

Recent official cataloguing has included: Ministry of Public Security Files (MPS) relating to World War II and the 1940s; Civil Defence files (CAB/9CD) of the 1950-1970s; Prisons and other NIO related files (NIO). The cataloguing of the existing Arts Council Northern Ireland (AC) archive has also been completed by the addition of approximately thirty feet of files, Board Minutes, and community arts project papers.