Judging by the last couple of days at the Back To Our Past show, genealogists remain very anxious to find out when or if the Irish civil registration indexes are going to return to IrishGenealogy.ie, the free website run by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. An update therefore seems in order.
The powers-that-be had a meeting a few weeks ago and rubber-stamped a restricted return of the indexes to the site, as per my blogpost of 15 September ie Births up to 100 years ago, Marriages up to 75 years ago and Deaths up to 50 years ago. The Data Protection Commissioner's office has given it's blessing, you'll be glad to note, and there is no requirement to wait for the Civil Registration Amendment Bill that's currently making its way through the Dail to complete its journey first. The two issues are not connected.
So it really is just a matter of 'when'. As far as I'm aware, the indexes are 'good to go' and I have no idea why they've not yet reappeared on the site.
NOTE, Monday 10 November: Three weeks later and the indexes are still nowhere to be seen. Instead, we have a report of a little spat between the powers-that-be from the Irish Times. Doesn't add anything to the story, but something to distract us from the important issues for five minutes.
