Documents On NI's Changing Politics In The 1990s Published

Historical documents from 1999 and before have been made available to the public for the first time on the CAIN (Conflict Archive on the Internet) website as part of ongoing work involving the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) and Ulster University.

The new material, which until now has not been accessible to the public online, provides insight into key events and developments of this period.

It includes:

• The changing nature of politics in Northern Ireland at the end of the 1990s.

• The negotiations aimed at establishing the new political bodies and institutions envisaged under the Good Friday Agreement / Belfast Agreement which had been signed in April 1998.

• The parading issue and in particular events surrounding Drumcree in the summer of 1998.

David Huddleston, PRONI Acting Director, said: "As PRONI marks its centenary, it is important that we continue to make archives available for everyone. Online access to digitised records allows a worldwide audience to access documents held in Belfast.

"This latest addition of records to CAIN from 1999 follows the events to mark the 25th anniversary of the Belfast Agreement and is a tangible legacy for researchers."

Dr Brendan Lynn, CAIN Deputy Director and Politics Lecturer at Ulster University, added: "CAIN is delighted to continue its co-operation with PRONI. The addition of this new material brings the total number of PRONI documents on CAIN to just over 4,250 items. I would like to take the opportunity to thank the Department for Communities for the funding provided to CAIN, in January 2023, that enabled this latest piece of work to be completed.

"Given that this information is easily available and free of charge it will be of great interest to students, researchers, teachers and lecturers or to anyone looking for information on the recent political and social history of Northern Ireland."