Monday 21 September 2020

Major Irish genealogy repositories back in Lockdown

With both the County and City of Dublin moving into Level 3 of the Irish Government's 'Plan for Living with Covid-19', the capital's major repositories for genealogists and historians, and other cultural attractions, are once again closed to the public. 

The restrictions, designed to drive down the coronavirus transmission rate in the county (currently at 114.2 compared with 59.1 for the country as a whole, and with the highest rate at 173.4 in Dublin North West) came into effect on Friday night. 

The National Archives of Ireland, the National Library of Ireland, the Dublin City Library & Archive, and all branch libaries have closed their doors (except for some local 'click & collect' services). However, some email services are being 'manned'. These include the free genealogy advisory services normally provided to visitors to the NAI (see webpage for details and email) and NLI (see details of online online services and email.).

For now, at least, the rest of the nation is on Level 2, which should mean local archives, libraries and local studies departments are open - with health and social distancing precautions in place, and often on an appointment-only basis.  However, officials are monitoring closely trends in the spread of Covid-19 in eight other counties: Donegal, Kildare, Leitrim, Limerick, Louth, Offaly, Waterford and Wicklow, so be aware that Level 3 restrictions may soon be implemented to areas beyond Dublin.

In Northern Ireland, a meeting of the Stormont Executive will decide this afternoon whether some areas covered by localised restrictions should be expanded and, if so, whether measure should be introduced NI-wide. 

Update to Northern Ireland, 4:50pm: Meeting resulted in increased social-only restrictions being re-introduced across the six counties, so PRONI will continue its current restricted appointment-only access system.