Irish Land Commission
Don't get too excited, as I'm afraid that the Irish Land Commission, set up in 1881 and tasked with redistributing land right up until its dissolution in the 1990's, is not giving up its treasure any time soon. Their records, which by all accounts are a veritable gold mine of genealogical information, are now held in custody in a warehouse in Portlaiose by the Irish Department of Agriculture. By all accounts, they are regarded as "private property", not records of State.
John Grenham waxed lyrical about the situation in his blog piece "Land Commission's Forbidden Fruit" - follow up the link to the Irish Government's brisk 2012 response to efforts to gain access. He also blogged recently about one lucky researcher's success in gaining access and the resulting book - "The Lost Gaeltacht". Fiona Fitzsimmons made the case for more access in this History Ireland "Irish Land Commission" article 6 years ago.
Curiously though, pre-1923 records for the Northern Irish Ulster counties were transferred to the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland and they have had no problems making them publicly available (no specific web page - you have to search their e-catalogue with the phrase "Land Commission" to find the 2000+ references.)
So, good news if you have land-owning ancestors in Ulster but bad news if they were in the Republic.
John Grenham waxed lyrical about the situation in his blog piece "Land Commission's Forbidden Fruit" - follow up the link to the Irish Government's brisk 2012 response to efforts to gain access. He also blogged recently about one lucky researcher's success in gaining access and the resulting book - "The Lost Gaeltacht". Fiona Fitzsimmons made the case for more access in this History Ireland "Irish Land Commission" article 6 years ago.
Curiously though, pre-1923 records for the Northern Irish Ulster counties were transferred to the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland and they have had no problems making them publicly available (no specific web page - you have to search their e-catalogue with the phrase "Land Commission" to find the 2000+ references.)
So, good news if you have land-owning ancestors in Ulster but bad news if they were in the Republic.
(c) Irish Geneaography - 2020
