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On 13 June 2024, the Historical Studies Committee of the Royal Irish Academy held a one-day conference exploring questions of access to and preservation (including digital preservation) of Irish historical records and archives. Dr Maeve O’Rourke was a member of the conference organising committee and gave an invited lecture entitled ‘Institutional archives and human rights implications of lack of access to them’. Her presentation addressed current barriers to information access, and explored the international and European human rights law, and EU GDPR, norms that should underpin the management of historical abuse information and the future operations of the National Centre for Research and Remembrance at Sean McDermott Street in Dublin 1.

The conference proceedings can be viewed here. A post-event report will be published later this year.

Dr O’Rourke’s lecture was covered by Fintan O’Toole, ‘Failure to prevent destruction of records is a further insult to those whose identities were stolen’ The Irish Times (18 June 2024).