Declassified files: Dublin now lagging six years behind UK in revealing state papers

The files from Belfast, which are available at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI), or London, which are held at the National Archives in Kew, are released under the 20-year rule.

That policy, under which most major government files are declassified after 20 years, is being phased in to replace what had been a 30-year rule.

However, the Irish government is still operating under a 30-year rule.

That means that while UK files now being declassified are from 1994, each year the Irish files lag further behind and Dublin is only now declassifying documents from 1988.

That has led to a concern that the British version of history is emerging first, leaving the Republic at a disadvantage, and there are plans to speed up the process by which the Republic’s files are released.

The files are released based on the year in which they were closed but such files may contain documents which go back several years or a stray file from much earlier.

There have been 517 files fully declassified in Belfast. A further 158 files have been partially opened, with either sections blacked out or pages removed.

There are 26 files which remain fully closed. Some of those relate to either individual prisoner files or those which relate to honours.

Those files fully closed in Belfast include ‘Kinsale Gas – Capital contributions to ROI 1984-1986’, ‘Female representation on public bodies 1992-1997’ and ‘Privatisation – SIO – Special Enquiries from the public 1993-1994”.

The files include both Northern Ireland Office (NIO) files and those from direct rule departments such as agriculture, environment and education.

From today, any member of the public can visit PRONI’s state-of-the-art building in Titanic Quarter and view the original files for themselves.