Irish governments and the guardianship of historical records, 1922-72 / Gerard O'Brien

Includes bibliographical references and index

This book examines one of the means through which successive Irish governments between 1922 and 1972 attempted to control the historical interpretation of the Irish past. This control was affected, though ineptly, by neglecting the care and development of government archives whilst rigidly restricting public and academic access to State-held historical documents. Chapters detail the slow recovery of the Public Record Office and State Paper Office following the catastrophic events of the civil war, and explore the tortuous relationship between civil servants, politicians and historians as a struggle began to secure a more liberal access policy