NI 100: Centenary historians request access to secret government files

King George V and Queen Mary arrive for the opening of the parliament of Northern Ireland in June 1921

Historians advising the government on how to mark the centenary of Northern Ireland have requested access to secret official files from the early 1920s.

The request includes documents relating to the so-called B Specials, an auxiliary police force known officially as the Ulster Special Constabulary.

Northern Ireland was created in 1921 after Ireland was partitioned.

An eight-strong panel of academics was set up last year to advise the government on centenary matters.

The Centenary Historical Advisory Panel is chaired by Queen's University historian Professor Paul Bew and includes academics from Cambridge University, Sheffield University and Ulster University.

Details of their push for more official information was first revealed by the Guardian newspaper.

'Chance to unearth documents'

A member of the advisory panel, Dr Marie Coleman from Queen's University, said gaining access to all of the files from the 1920s would help to tell the story of Northern Ireland in greater detail.

She told BBC News NI: "I don't think there would be anything terribly embarrassing, that would be any different to much of what's released already.

Dr Marie Coleman

"To be perfectly honest, I think a lot of this is a resourcing issue.

"The Public Record Office staff are doing amazing work but I think it's fair to suggest that they need additional resources to be able to complete this."

She added: "We see this decade of centenaries as an opportunity to unearth documents which up until now maybe might not have been considered as relevant or had not been in the priority for archives to be released.

"The Irish government has put considerable money into funding the release of archives relating to pensions that were given to 1916 veterans and people like that."

The BBC News NI website has a dedicated section marking the 100th anniversary of the creation of Northern Ireland and partition of the island.

There are special reports on the major figures of the time and the events that shaped modern Ireland available at bbc.co.uk/ni100.

Year '21: You can also explore how Northern Ireland was created a hundred years ago in the company of Tara Mills and Declan Harvey.

Listen to the latest Year '21 podcast on BBC Sounds or catch-up on previous episodes.

Dr Coleman said the centenary was an opportunity to "ensure that we get full access to the historical record relating to the establishment of Northern Ireland".

She added: "We know that there are personnel records relating to the Ulster Special Constabulary (USC).

"There are a lot of ethical issues regarding the release of them."

The Ulster Special Constabulary was set up in 1920 and dissolved in 1970

'Fill in a big gap'

Dr Coleman said the release of the documents could help formulate a clearer picture of the make-up and age profile of the force when it was formed in 1920 and how closely, or not, it mirrored the Ulster Volunteer Force which was set up during the previous decade.

"I can see why there would be concerns, even 100 years on.

"The activities of the USC are contested, shall we say, and people today might have concerns that they wouldn't want their ancestors' file open to the public, but there should be no concern about that.

"We don't need personal names but we would still get a sense of age, location, religious background and things like that.

"Access to that particular collection could fill in quite a big gap about the security situation at the time that Northern Ireland was established."

The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (Proni) is governed by the Department for Communities.

A spokesperson said: "Proni will scope the cataloguing and sensitivity review of the administrative records of the USC for the 1920s.

"Proni will aim to open the files once classification, cataloguing and sensitivity review has been safely completed in line with Covid-19 protocols."