Sir, – In the 1980s, the then taoiseach, Charles Haughey, succeeded in getting funding from the EEC amounting to more than £1 million for the purpose of setting up genealogy centres in each county in the country, for the main purpose of developing rural tourism.
Through Anco, and later FÁS, all church records were indexed. It was the intention that the overseas visitor, by paying a nominal charge for the genealogical service, would thus recoup the cost to the State for the indexing. In our experience the visitor from abroad was always willing to pay the nominal fee demanded.
It has now come to notice that the Government intends to make the church records available free of charge.
This is disgraceful as it will mean the cessation of many centres which will become unviable.
Already this Government has made significant cut-backs in national heritage and museum facilities.
– Yours, etc,
JUDE FLYNN,
Secretary,
Genealogy Centre/Longford
Roots Centre,
17 Dublin Street,
Longford.
Sir, – The Catholic Church in Ireland has received much deserved criticism in recent years but the publication this week by the National Library of Ireland of the online Catholic parish registers should remind us of the debt we owe to the many Catholic priests who compiled and preserved these registers over the last 250 years.
In many instances they are the only records we have of our family histories after the wanton destruction of official State records by others, both British and Irish. – Yours, etc,
LOUIS O’FLAHERTY,
Santry,
Dublin 9.