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Please note that the information about our collections on this web site is not fully comprehensive. For a complete search it is necessary to contact the Archives and/or to visit our research room.   

Use the links to the left and below to view some of our major holdings:

• Local Government Archives
• Business Archives
• Personal, Family and Literary Papers
• Solicitors' and Landed Estate Papers
• Archives of Clubs, Societies, Trade Unions or other Private Organisations
• Archives relating to Religious Institutions
• School Records
• Small Collections
  
• Digitised Resources
• Recent Accessions

Please note that civil Birth Marriage and Death records are held by the General Register Office.

General Information About our Collections

Cork City and County Archives preserves one of the largest and finest sets of archives in Ireland. Our holdings include large quantities of archives from local government and from privately donated sources. The vast majority of the archives relate to Cork City and County. Individual collections range in size from 1 item to thousands of items. Most of our archive holdings date within the period 1600 - 1980, with a particular concentration of material from the 19th century up to the mid 20th century. One of the earliest original documents found in the collection is a property deed relating to Cork City from the year 1598.

Highlights of our holdings include: The archives of Cork City Council (formerly Cork Corporation) and Cork County Council and Cork Town Councils, the Youghal Town Records, Board of Guardians (Poor Law/Workhouse) records for the whole of Cork county, a number of major personal papers collections, and several important collections of business archives and landed estates papers, as well as the records of a number of clubs, societies, solicitors, and trade unions.

See our online exhibition section to view some images of documents from our collections.

We are an actively collecting repository, and we are delighted to hear from anyone who has information about any records or documents relating to the Cork city or county area. (Tel. 021-4505876)

Access

Access to collections involves completing an application form and making an appointment to visit the Archives research room. See using the research room. 

Only collections where the contents have been listed and catalogued are available for research. Certain archives may be closed to researchers for a period or may have special access restrictions.