National Library of Ireland

The National Library of Ireland on Kildare Street was founded in 1877. It helps to collect and make available the collective memory of the Irish nation at home and abroad, caring for more than ten million printed, visual and manuscript treasures.

The library holds copies of most surviving Roman Catholic parish registers up to 1880. Consult the List of Parish Registers held by the library which gives the covering dates of parish registers for each parish.

Other holdings include:

Griffith’s Valuation
Tithe Applotment books
Directories
Newspapers
Government papers
Maps
Photos
Estate papers and other manuscripts

For family historians, the library operates the Genealogy Advisory Service for those looking for professional help. The library website hosts thousands of images of Dublin and the rest of Ireland which are available online from a number of library collections. An online database for Irish research hosted by the library and known as Sources contains catalogue records for Irish manuscripts and articles in Irish periodicals. The results of a search can be filtered by the various collections and sources. The library’s online catalogue allows user to search many of the library’s catalogued collections including journals, magazines and government publications; manuscripts catalogued since 1990; visual collections including prints and drawings, ephemera and photographs; digitised glass plate images from the early photographic collections. The results of a catalogue search can be filtered to narrow down the results to various subjects and genres including the photographic collection. Online digitised items from past photography exhibitions held at the library are available online hosted by the Google Cultural Institute.

The Newspaper Database contains listings of newspaper titles held in the National Library of Ireland.