Background to The Chief Secretary’s Office Registered Papers
The Chief Secretary’s Office Registered Papers (CSO/RP) consists of correspondence received between 1818 and 1924 by the office of the Chief Secretary, which oversaw the administration of Ireland following the Act of Union in 1800.
The Lord Lieutenant served as the British monarch’s representative in Ireland and the Chief Secretary’s Office played a crucial political role throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, operating from its headquarters in Dublin Castle.
What’s in the collection?
- Incoming correspondence to the Chief Secretary’s Office ‘registered’ by a clerk
- Letters, petitions, memorials, memoranda, affidavits, recommendations, accounts, reports and returns
- From 1917 onwards, there are records relating to events such as the First World War, compensation by the Rebellion (Victims) Committee and issues related to prisons and hunger strikes
Accessing the Chief Secretary’s Office Registered Papers
The National Archives is carrying out ongoing cataloguing work on the Chief Secretary’s Office Registered Papers, focusing on both the earliest and final years of the series. While this work continues, researchers can access different parts of the collection in the following ways.
Online finding aids
The online catalogue provides finding aids to help researchers identify material within the collection. Useful information on using the online catalogue can be found here. It does not contain digitised copies of the documents.
Finding aids are available for:
- 1818–1833
- 1917–1918
Original documents in the Reading Room
The original registers and documents for 1835–1924 can be consulted onsite in the Reading Room. These records are not digitised and must be viewed in person.
Records currently being catalogued
The following records, including their indexes and registers are still being processed and are not available to researchers at present:
- 1833 Outrage Reports
- 1834 Outrage Reports
- 1835 Outrage Reports
- January–June 1919
