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As the 24 November deadline for the restoration of devolved government in Northern Ireland looms, a new website has just been launched, which makes all 93,000 pages of the NI Parliamentary Papers produced between 1921 and 1972 available online for the first time.

 

Created by the Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS) at King's College London and the Centre for Data Digitisation Analysis (CDDA) at Queen's University Belfast, the new resource casts a unique and valuable light on political developments within Northern Ireland. The papers were previously held by various institutions as reference only copies, and with no comprehensive subject index were inaccessible and difficult to use.

Now Stormont papers offers users the opportunity to access this important and intriguing collection of papers and to search by key subjects or people, many of whom are st"This timely new website will both bring the history of Northern Ireland to life and bring it to a new audience."ill involved in the ongoing political discussions today.

Explaining the rationale behind the project, Dr Paul Ell, Director of the CDDA at Queen's said: "The 92,000 pages of parliamentary discussion on Northern Ireland from post-partition in 1921 to the establishment of Direct Rule in 1972 were a vast virtually untapped resource that paid specific attention to social and economic matters of importance and debate, many of which remain of great significance today.

"Access to the papers was very limited and as the resource is the primary source for following the development of Northern Ireland, the CDDA at Queen's felt it was vital that it be made available to the wider community.

Sheila Anderson, Director of the Arts and Humanities Data Service added: "There is no wider community than that offered by the Internet and now anyone can access this site to find out how issues such as health, education, social services, local trade, agriculture, law and order, planning and  industry developed in Northern Ireland.

"This timely new website will bring the history of Northern Ireland to life and bring it to a new audience. A myriad of colourful information is available on political figures and their opinions, several of whom are still featuring strongly on the political scene today."

 

Further information on the work of the CDDA at Queen's is available at CDDA and information on the Arts and Humanities Data
Service is available at AHDS