Central Bank of Ireland Archive and Records Team
Reasons for nomination:
The Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) Archives and Records Team is dedicated to recordkeeping, preserving and making accessible records that reflect the history of economic and social history of Ireland. The Central Bank of Ireland’s Archive tells the story of economic development and progression in Ireland, the establishment and the design of Irish currency, the services provided to both the Irish public and international public, and the day-to-day workings of the Central Bank.
The Team strive for accessibility of information as well as public engagement and learning of Irish history through our broad collection. Our mission being to promote transparency and engage with the community from all ages in every way that is available to the team – in a physical way through tours, workshops and talks, in addition to a digital approach with Social Media posts, updating the Open Catalogue and celebrating online events such as the Dublin Festival of History so anyone interested can join from all around the globe.
History of the Service
The Central Bank of Ireland was established in 1943. However, the Central Bank of Ireland Archive was established after, with Bernadette Caruana as Archivist since 1965, nevertheless the Archive holdings date back to 1786.
The Central Bank of Ireland Archive was formally opened to the public in 2017, and 8 years later the service is as active as when it started. In 2018 the CBI Archive was awarded the ARA Record Keeping Service of the Year Award.
Staffing
CBI Records and Archive Team has professionally qualified staff including archivists (Archives Manager, Principal Archivist, Cataloguer), as well as 2 Records Associates.
Each staff member has their own individual responsibilities to optimise productivity, while also working as a team to ensure accuracy and a better outcome. Moreover, the Team is continuously kept up to date attending conferences on recordkeeping, archiving and preservation such as those from ARA, ECB and EABH.
Collections
The Central Bank of Ireland Archive holds more than 12,000 hard-copy files.
As the team is currently working on the backlog, they are constantly updating and uploading the catalogue, this number will keep on growing. The catalogue includes an extensive variety of records, from museum artefacts, staff photographs, as well as historical coins and banknotes.
The CBI Records & Archives Team focus not only in preserving and providing accessibility of the Central Bank of Ireland history, but also the economic and social history of Ireland, with collections regarding Worker’s Unions, the Marriage Bar and imports from Dublin Port since the 18th century.
Nevertheless, the Team add new collections to the catalogue such as the Rainbow Network records, which is a CBI staff network that aims to ensure the well-being and professional development of LGBTQIA+ colleagues since 2020.
Records Management
The Team assist staff members with work-related queries on a daily basis regarding hard-copy records, such as disposal lists as well as the need to search for records within the organisation.
The staff also participate monthly on the European Central Bank appraisal working group, assisting on the writing of guidelines for appraisal of records for National European Banks.
Outreach Programmes
The CBI Archive & Records Team continuously engages with the public across Ireland, mainly the city of Dublin. Also, all over the world with digital outreach. Generally focusing on students and history enthusiasts – tours, exhibitions and talks are organised for the public and staff members to attend.
The celebration of the Dublin Festival of History (DFOH), which is an annual free festival opened to the public, organised by the Central Bank of Ireland Records & Archives Team. Celebrated at the Central Bank of Ireland HQ, the most recent Dublin Festival of History talk was about T.K. Whitaker by his biographer, Anne Chambers. It included a small exhibition related to the topic of discussion from the CBI Archive. The event was celebrated on October 2024 and had the highest attendance out of all the years, and was available in person as well as online.
The Records and Archives Team also provide assistance to researchers, and archival queries from coin designs, stocks and land bonds among many others, facilitating their visit to the Reading Room of the CBI Records and Archives Team. Internal and external queries are common.
Every working Monday, the Records and Archives Team exhibit archival artefacts to the newly joined staff members. On the tour, the staff members learn about historical Irish currency as well as Irish history. Staff members are also informed about the possibility of research at the archives as well as answering any queries about history or the artefacts.
Working with schools - examples
The Records and Archive staff regularly host tours as well as workshops for students, from Primary School kids to university students up until Irish National Framework of Qualifications Level 9.
High School and Primary School students are also invited to the Archive for Tours of historical artefacts as well as a small talk about what being an Archivist is. We also hosted the Winner of the Young Economist of the Year for a tour of the artefacts as well as a tour of the Archive itself, with some insight on the staff’s work.
Recent feedback about the student tours: “Just to say thank you for presenting to the children today. Presentation was really engaging and the children really enjoyed it.”
A highly enjoyed activity for public of all ages is the Design Your Coin Workshop. The CBI Records and Archives Team present a Power Point regarding historical Irish currency, explaining the minting and making of coins, and bringing historical artefacts that can be held by the assistants in a controlled environment, such as coin dies and banknote printing plate. The students then are given 15 minutes to create a coin design, and present it to the attendants. The mission is to engage with the public and making learning about history fun and creative.
Some feedback regarding the Workshop at the Dragon’s Den event (April 2025) with Primary School students: “A really interesting presentation – it was great of you to take the time with kids – they will remember it forever.”
Also, from December 2024 to January 2025 the records and archive staff hosted a Transition Year (TY) student for her work experience at the Archive. Showing her the basics of the archive, records management and some Irish history. Her most recent feedback: “I just wanted to say thank you so much for the work experience, it was so much fun and I learnt a lot. I really enjoyed working as an archivist and just wanted to thank you.”
Exhibitions
The recent acquisition of a total of 5 display cases in November 2024 facilitates the availability of outreach, with the permanent exhibition at the Central Bank of Ireland which showcases Irish history through artefacts such as historical banknotes from 1928 and intaglio from c. 1970 among many others. Descriptive placards are also made by the Team which contextualises the artefact and they are available in both Irish and English.
The planning of an archival exhibition titled “Archive on Display” will be available to the public on July 2025 on site, with tours being available daily as well as a Design Your Coin Workshop.
Digital Engagement
The Records and Archives Team – along with the Communications team – use Instagram, YouTube as well as LinkedIn to promote not only the Archive’s collection, but also the work of the staff.
The staff focus on commemorations such as the 35th Anniversary of the £1 coin, and Decimal Day on February 15th. But also participate on the ARA annual campaign of #ExploreYourArchive exhibiting the collection of pre-decimal coins and Lady Lavery banknotes.
The Day in the Life of an Archivist series is the post with one of the most engagement off the Central Bank of Ireland Instagram page, displaying what the Archivist activities are as well as exhibiting the collection – in this case, coin dies. In addition, for Seachtain na Gaeilge (#snag2025) one of the posts of the Day in the Life of an Archivist was posted translated into Irish. Also, another video was posted talking about the first ever Archivist of the Central Bank.
These videos are posted on all 3 Social Media account for better outreach.
Conclusion
The Central Bank of Ireland Records and Archive team have demonstrated an excellent capacity for of community engagement not only in Dublin, but throughout Ireland, establishing the Archive as a physical and digital site to learn about Irish heritage in a variety of perspectives including economic, social, political, architectural and art history knowledge.
The professionals who form part of the team dedicate themselves to improve the Archive on a daily basis for present and future generations throughout physical and online approach, with the purpose of transparency and informing the public of all ages with educational programmes as well as initiatives for history enthusiasts.
Supporting evidence of service delivery excellence