Sir, - I read with interest your recent article in regard to the proposal to have pre-1900 birth, marriage and death records available on microfilm in the National Library of Ireland. The Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations has organised a worldwide petition to the Minister for Health via the Internet on this very point. I understand that it will be submitted shortly.
As a constant user of the totally inadequate research facility in Joyce House, I can only imagine the registrar general would welcome this suggestion. The inability of the Department to provide adequate staff and a respectable facility must surely annoy the civil servants who struggle to provide a service which is incapable of meeting the growing demand. The staff in the GRO deserve the highest praise for their efforts in coping with an impossible situation.
May I quote an overseas visitor who, having visited the National Library and National Archives, arrived at the GRO: "What an awful shock I got when I visited the GRO. There were too many people in such a small space. The research room was grubby and the furniture and other fittings well beyond the point at which they should have been disposed of. Many of the indexes, which are vital in gaining access to the actual records, were in tatters."
Bord Failte is spending millions annually to attract visitors to Ireland to research their heritage. How sad that when these "roots tourists" arrive they discover that the GRO public search room has become the grubby, unwelcoming face of Irish genealogy. - Yours, etc.,
Eileen M. O Duill, CGRS, O Duill Associates, Delwood Road, Castleknock, Dublin 15.