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Welcome to the PRONI Express

Welcome to the latest edition of the PRONI Express. PRONI will now be using the DfC Engaged Communities Group Eventbrite page to host our talks and events. So please follow and keep an eye on the page for all our upcoming events. 

Closure notice - Public Holidays

PRONI will be closed for the public bank holidays on Monday 5 May and Monday 26 May.

Local history groups - we want to hear from you!

Are you part of a local or family history group?

Want a change of surroundings for your next branch meeting?

Then why not contact us at proni@communities-ni.gov.uk to see if we can facilitate you and your group.

Not only can you meet up and discuss your local interests, but you can also make use of our expansive range of archival documents and avail of free resources such as Ancestry, FindMyPast and the British Newspaper Archive.

Extended opening on Thursdays and Saturdays between April and November 2025 onsite at PRONI

Remembering VE Day - Getting Started Workshop

Saturday 3 May at 10:30am - onsite at PRONI

Are you interested in local and family history? Why not come along to a practical workshop at PRONI to discover the essential skills required to begin your search at PRONI?

You will receive advice on searching for records, take part in a practical demonstration on using the Public Search Room. To mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day, there will also be an opportunity to handle original documents relating to the end of the Second World War in Northern Ireland in the PRONI Reading Room.

Booking required.

‘Stitch Your Bit’ remembering the 80th Anniversary of VE Day

Thursday 8 May at 11:15am, 1pm and 3pm - onsite at PRONI

Partnered with curator Ciaran Doran, we are delighted to invite you to a free curated workshop of sewing and activity designed to remember VE Day on 8 May 1945 and the end of WW2 in Europe.

Attendees will be invited to add stitches to a collaborative textile that is compiled of pieces and patches of fabric of the era, predominantly cottons and linen. Postcards will be available for attendees to jot down thoughts, memories and personal stories.

There will be the opportunity to attend one of three sessions of up to 40 attendees. No experience necessary and all sewing materials provided.

Booking required.

Victory 80 years on: Voices from the NI War Memorial

Friday 9 May at 1:00 pm – onsite at PRONI

PRONI in partnership with Northern Ireland War Memorial (NIWM), welcomes you to a talk by Michael Burns. 

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, when Victory in Europe Day (8th May 1945) and Victory over Japan Day (15th August 1945) marked the formal cessation of hostilities.

This talk will delve into the extensive oral history collection of NIWM to explore how these historic occasions were celebrated across Northern Ireland.

Booking required.

Ireland and America: 250th Anniversary Perspectives

Thursday 15 May at 6:15 pm – onsite at PRONI

Items found in the collections of PRONI and the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland reveal points of connection in Irish and American pasts.

‘Ireland and America: 250th Anniversary Perspectives’, will bring experts including Professor Ian McBride (Oxford), Dr Sophie Cooper (Queens University Belfast), Professor David Dickson (Trinity College Dublin) and Dr Patrick Fitzgerald (Mellon Centre for Migration Studies) together to discuss the ways in which Irish and American histories are entangled and interconnected.

Booking required.

Outreach and Engagement: The Balmoral Show

Wednesday 14 May to Saturday 17 May - Eikon Exhibition Centre, Lisburn

We are delighted to announce that we will be attending this year’s Balmoral Show!

Drop in to see us at the Eikon Centre anytime between 9am to 4pm with any questions on how to get started on your family history research.  

No booking required.

The Devil in the Data: Conference

Friday 16 May at 9:30am - onsite at PRONI

‘Data’ can be understood broadly to mean recorded information of every kind.

User Content?, an installation on display in the PRONI gallery, addresses the amassing of digital data by private tech corporations from users engaging with their apps, services and devices. We will hear in this conference from the legal scholars and artists who collaborated to create the exhibition, finding that such data becomes a source of power to surveil and profile individuals, often without their awareness, and to generate economic wealth and perhaps to curtail freedom and agency.

Booking required.

Beaches, fields, and landing grounds: defending Northern Ireland during WW2

Thursday 29 May at 1pm - onsite at PRONI

In partnership with the Northern Ireland War Memorial (NIWM) we welcome you to a talk by Dr James O'Neill.

With the Fall of France and the retreat of the British Expeditionary Force at Dunkirk in 1940, there was a very real possibility the apparently invincible Wehrmacht would invade the United Kingdom. While Britain and Commonwealth forces regrouped, hopes of repelling any future invasion were placed in the rapidly constructed concrete defences along beaches and rivers. Moreover, the threat also came from the air. Therefore, active gun defences and passive radar networks were established to guard the skies over the north. This talk will look at where these were built and what still remains.

Booking required.

Femina Culpa, Poems of the female criminal

Thursday 5 June at 1pm - onsite at PRONI

We are delighted to invite you to a lunchtime session of poetry readings and panel discussion by writers, Emma McKervey, Kelly Creighton, Linda McKenna and Milena Williamson using themes from their books – historical research, archival materials, and the female working class voice and portrayal in the 19th century, especially their representation through the Press.

Booking required.

PRONI on YouTube

View over 12 years of recorded PRONI talks on our YouTube channel.  From family and local history talks, to specialist research topics, there is sure to be something for everyone.

New recordings are added regularly. Subscribe today to make sure you don’t miss any!

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Admission to all events is FREE, however booking is essential as spaces are limited.

Get more great PRONI content by following us today - just click or tap the icons to find our pages. PRONI regularly records its public events and talks - view these on our YouTube channel.