Thousands of previously unseen PRONI records from 2002–2003 published online for first time

PRONI Offices in Belfast

Public records dating from 2002 and 2003 — alongside material from earlier years — have been made publicly available online for the first time, marking a significant expansion of digital access to Northern Ireland’s recent history.

The newly released documents have been added to the Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN) website as part of an ongoing collaboration between the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) and Ulster University.

The records can now be accessed freely via the CAIN PRONI portal at http://cain.ulster.ac.uk/proni.

The latest tranche of material, which until now had not been accessible to the public online, provides fresh insight into key political events and developments during a pivotal period in Northern Ireland’s post-conflict history.

For researchers, journalists, students and members of the public, the release offers a deeper understanding of the decision-making processes and official thinking that shaped the early 2000s.

David Huddleston, PRONI’s Acting Director, said the digitisation project has opened up unique historical material to audiences far beyond Northern Ireland.

“PRONI’s work with CAIN and the ongoing digitisation of historical records has resulted in unique records becoming accessible for the first time to a global audience. This latest set of official records dating from 2002 and 2003, which are now freely available to view, help to further the understanding of our recent past by showing the details and thinking behind political developments in Northern Ireland.

“The PRONI on CAIN resource contains a wealth of archive material dating from the 1960s to 2003 and I am pleased that the ongoing collaboration with Ulster University has made this possible.”

The human impact of the release is significant.

For families, community groups and those who lived through the period, the records offer an opportunity to revisit — and better understand — the context surrounding decisions that affected everyday life during years of political transition. For younger generations, the material provides an authoritative window into events that shaped the society they inherited.

Dr Brendan Lynn, CAIN Deputy Director and Politics Lecturer at Ulster University, highlighted both the scale of the archive and the importance of sustained public funding in making the work possible.

“CAIN is delighted to have been able to continue its partnership with PRONI. The addition of this new material brings the total number of PRONI documents to around 4,900 items.

“On behalf of CAIN, I want to thank the Department for Communities for the funding it provided back in January 2025, that enabled this latest piece of work to be completed.”

CAIN, which can be accessed at http://cain.ulster.ac.uk/, provides an extensive range of information and source material on conflict and politics from 1968 to the present day.

Since its launch in March 1997, the website has attracted a worldwide audience and has received almost 27 million visits.

PRONI, a division of the Department for Communities, is based at 2 Titanic Boulevard in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter. Further information about PRONI and its services is available at www.nidirect.gov.uk/campaigns/public-record-office-northern-ireland-proni.

In total, there are now around 4,900 PRONI public records available through CAIN, amounting to more than 19,000 pages of digitised material, all freely accessible online: http://cain.ulster.ac.uk/proni/.