Overview of Collections
Cork has a long and proud history which is reflected in its surviving local archives. We began acquiring archives from Cork city and county in 1972 and we now preserve one of Cork's largest and most important cultural heritage assets, and one of the largest and richest sets of archives in Ireland, spanning over 400 years, and more, of history. Our archive collections, which are all unique and irreplaceable, are of local, regional, national and international significance.
We are the designated archives service for local authority archives and other local archives from Cork City and County.
Our collections comprise:
1) Corporate archives transferred from 43 Cork local government and health bodies, for example, Cork City Council and Cork County Council and from various defunct authorities such as the County of Cork Grand Jury, Youghal Corporation, poor law unions/workhouses, rural and urban district councils, town councils, vocational education committees, hospitals and homes, pre 1960 boards of health and public assistance, Cork Harbour Commissioners.
2) Corporate and personal archives that have been acquired by donation, purchase, bequest or loan, for example personal and family papers, solicitors and landed estate papers, theatre records, trade union records, records from clubs and societies, schools, businesses, religious bodies, and photographers.
It is important to note that the CCCA does not create the archive collections held. Each archive collection or 'fonds' held here is a unique set of records generated by an organisation or person in the course of their activities, selected for preservation and deposited in the CCCA. A collection may consist of just 1 item, or up to thousands of items. Approximately 300,000 items are preserved here, residing in almost 1,500 archival collections. An item can be as small as, for example, a single letter or photograph, or it can be as large as a thick administrative file or a bound volume containing hundreds of pages, or a large photographic album.
Time Periods
Most of our collections date within the period 1600 - 1995. The 1800s and 1900s are particularly well documented however there are also some significant collections from the 1600s and 1700s.
There are also a number of original items for pre-1600, such as the Medieval and Early Modern Charters for Youghal, and a number of deeds relating to property, in the O'Flynn Exham solicitors collection.
We also hold a number of collections that comprise copied material, going back in some cases to the 1300s.
You may search for particular years and time periods in our Online Catalogue, using the Expert Search.
Strengths and Coverage
Our collections document a vast number of organisations, people, events, subjects, and time periods. Our holdings are particularly strong in the following areas:
- 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th century
- Social, commercial and cultural History 1800s - 1900s
- Local government 1600s - 1900s
- Irish politics and nationalism 1800s - 1900s
- Irish revolutionary period 1912-1923
- Business records 1700s - 1900s
- Solicitors/landed estate records 1600s - 1900s
- Personal papers 1700s - 1900s
- Theatre archives 1800s - 1900s
- Health and hospital records 1870s - 1900s
- Photographs 1800s, 1900s
Locating and Accessing Collections
Over 900 of our collections have been fully catalogued at item level to international standards and are available for research.
Use our detailed finding aids to locate material of relevance to your research, including our online catalogue, and collections guide with descriptive lists for many individual collections.
Our collections are mainly in hardcopy format and may be accessed by appointment in our Research Room. Several thousand images/pages selected from various collections, are also available to view online in our Online Digital Collections.
