On 30 June 1922, a massive explosion and fire destroyed Ireland’s Public Record Office in the opening engagement of the Irish Civil War. Seven centuries of Irish records were lost – seemingly forever – in one of the worst cultural tragedies of 20th-century Irish history.

These records are now being reconstructed through the remarkable ‘Beyond 2022’ project, led by Trinity’s own Dr Peter Crooks and Dr Ciarán Wallace. Many millions of words from destroyed documents have been reassembled from copies, transcripts and other records scattered among collections and archives around the world. These reconstructed records were launched earlier this year as part of the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland, an online, open-access resource that brings together this rich array of documents within an immersive 3-D reconstruction of the destroyed building.

Dr Crooks and Dr Wallace discuss this remarkable restoration and illustrate how a moment of destruction has been reversed through painstaking research and international collaborative partnerships.