Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
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| Agency overview | |
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| Formed | 1924 |
| Jurisdiction | Northern Ireland, Government of the United Kingdom |
| Headquarters | 2 Titanic Boulevard, Titanic Quarter, Belfast, BT3 9HQ |
| Minister responsible |
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| Parent agency | Department for Communities |
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| Website | www |
The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI; Ulster-Scots: Apen Scrow Oaffis o Norlin Airlann; Irish: Oifig Taifead Poiblí Thuaisceart Éireann) is situated in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is a division within the Communities Cohesion Group of the Department for Communities (DfC).
The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland is distinguished from other archival institutions in the United Kingdom by its unique combination of private and official records. The Record Office is not the Northern Ireland equivalent or imitation of any Great Britain or Republic of Ireland archival institution. It combines the functions and responsibilities of a range of institutions: it is at the same time Public Record Office, manuscripts department of a national library, county record office for the six counties of Northern Ireland, and holder of a large range of private records. This range of remit, embracing, among others, central and local government, the churches and the private sector, is unique to Northern Ireland.
PRONI was established by the Public Records Act (Northern Ireland), 1923. The new body opened in March 1924 on the fourth floor of a former linen warehouse in central Belfast (at Murray Street). The immediate challenge was to identify and preserve surrogates of records lost in Dublin during the Four Courts fire on June 1922. The first Deputy Keeper, Dr David A. Chart was able to replace many of these records by approaching solicitors, business people, politicians, churches and the landed aristocracy.
The success of Chart's acquisition policy meant that PRONI needed more storage space. In April 1933, the office moved to a new central Belfast location, the first floor of the new Royal Courts of Justice in Chichester Street. However, it was not until 1965, that the Ministry of Finance would approve an actual new building. This new building, opened in 1972, at Balmoral Avenue was the first new record office to be built in the UK since the Public Record Office in London was erected in 1838.
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