OTP 2020 Hub - The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, Belfast

The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) is the official archive for Northern Ireland and holds over 3 million records that tell the story of our people and our place.

PRONI archives the records of the government departments and also receives material from local councils, schools and other non-departmental bodies. In addition to this, PRONI is also able to collect, preserve and make available records from private depositors.

Approximately a third of PRONI’s 3million documents have come from private depositors and they range from church records, to business records (large and small), local clubs, societies, families and individuals. Anyone can deposit records in PRONI, they can be collections of thousands of records to deposits of a single letter.

Private records are crucially important to our understanding of the past, and we rely on the public to deposit records to help us build the fullest picture of our community memory for future generations. This is particularly important for our understanding of the experiences of the LGBT community in Northern Ireland. Without public access to personal archives and lived experience, a comprehensive LGBT history cannot be written. PRONI is delighted to be partnering with Cara-Friend as the OUTing the Past Belfast hub this year. We are grateful to have the Cara-Friend archive already deposited in PRONI and hope that our partnership on this event will encourage further deposit of records.

The Venue

PRONI has been housed in a purpose built building located in Belfast’s historic Titanic Quarter since 2011. The ground floor of the building is fully accessible to the public and includes our exhibition space, conference room and café. The second floor is accessible to registered visitors and includes our public search room and reading room. Anyone can visit PRONI, registration and access to the records is free of charge.

There is no dedicated parking at PRONI but the SSE Arena car-park, and Titanic Quarter surface car-parks are all a few minutes’ walk from the building. The G2 line of the Glider services Titanic Quarter and also Metro Bus 94. Titanic Quarter train station is also only a short walk from PRONI.

The building is fully accessible, with disabled access toilets and lifts accessing all public areas.