Congratulations to the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland
Building on the achievements of the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland (VRTI) project to date, this announcement states that the VRTI ‘will operate as a National Platform for Digital History and Heritage, harnessing advanced technologies including responsible A.I. to create a shared digital infrastructure for research on Ireland's deep history. This will provide a hub for national and international research partnerships and will transform access to Ireland’s documentary heritage.’
Image: James Lawless TD, Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation, and Science, on his visit to the VRTI on 30 September 2026, with Dr Peter Crooks (left) and Dr Ciarán Wallace (right), examining a charter for the Guild of Barber Surgeons (1597) TCD MS 1447/1.
The Taoiseach Micheál Martin TD and Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, James Lawless TD, issued a joint statement on 20 October 2026 announcing the Government’s support for the development of the VRTI as Ireland’s National Platform for Digital History and Heritage from 2027. The announcement is available to read on the Government’s website here: Taoiseach and Minister Lawless launch national platform to position Ireland as global leader in digitally-enabled historical research.
In the announcement Taoiseach Micheál Martin said
‘In an era when trust in information is slipping, the VRTI’s National Platform for historical research will make Ireland a global leader in digital research, and in access to historical sources, thereby ensuring that our shared story is verifiably and reliably accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world. These kinds of projects are vital tools for our researchers, and indeed for our citizens, in ensuring that we can build a shared understanding of our past’.
Dr Ciarán Wallace, VRTI Programme Director; Dr Peter Crooks, Founder and Principal Investigator, Department of History, School of Histories and Humanities, TCD; and Professor Declan O’Sullivan, Co-Principal Investigator, School of Computer Science and Statistics, TCD, have published a joint statement on this welcome and significant development:
‘The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland (VRTI) warmly welcomes today’s announcement by Taoiseach Micheál Martin and James Lawless, Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, supporting its development as Ireland’s National Platform for Digital History and Heritage from 2027.
We are deeply grateful to the Government for this decision, and to the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science for its commitment to VRTI’s continuing development.
The announcement lays the foundations for significant research and innovation, linking researchers in the humanities and computer science with cultural heritage partners across the world.
This is an extraordinary opportunity for Ireland to harness technology for public benefit, and to create the world’s most technologically advanced research platform dedicated to a single nation’s past.’
Please click here to read the VRTI statement in full, and in Irish, on the VRTI website on 20 October 2026: A national platform for Ireland’s history: the Virtual Treasury looks to the future.
Image 2: James Lawless TD, Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation, and Science, on his visit to the VRTI on 30 September 2026, with Dr Ciarán Wallace viewing the death mask of Theobald Wolfe Tone, TCD MS Object 57.
The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland is an all-island and international research programme at Trinity, which was founded by Dr Peter Crooks, Department of History, TCD, and is led by the School of Histories and Humanities with the School of Computer Science and Statistics, TCD, and other partners. The VRTI is working to reconstruct the Public Record Office of Ireland archive which was destroyed in 1922 at the outset of the Civil War, and whose records span 750 years of Irish history from 1172–1922.
Further information on the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland is available on the project’s website: https://virtualtreasury.ie/