County archivist: Newly-created role will really throw the doors open on the riches of Kilkenny

Kilkenny's Malcolm Noonan has welcomed the advertisement by Kilkenny County Council for the post of a County Archivist.

The Green Party senator that the position is long overdue in a city and county with such a rich archive collection.

"I am delighted that after years of campaigning for one, that a County Archivist role will now become a reality and that I was in a position to fund the post through the Heritage Council 2025 budget as Minister for Nature, Heritage and Electoral Reform in the last government," he said.

He said Kilkenny’s civic records alone warranted the necessity for such a role, but many more important family, community and historical archives would be brought into the care and conservation of the local authority when an archivist is in place.

"Experience from counties like Offaly, who have pioneered the county archivist role for smaller counties, have shown that once you build it they will come," he said.
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"Not only did Offaly County Council collaborate to fund the role of archivist but they fitted out a wonderful archive facility and now have many important collections in the care of the service. Since my time in the Tholsel as mayor, seeing the important records of the city, corporation minutes dating back centuries, charters, even plans of old city estates, I knew that we needed to take better care of them. Our civic records are among the oldest in the country, dating back to the Liber Primus (first book of the Corporation) from 1231.

"It is also important in light of birth information and tracing legislation, that people have access to records. A County Archive service can assist in this regard. I commend Kilkenny Library Services, Kilkenny Archives and Kilkenny Archaeological Society for their work to date in conserving records and indeed so many painstaking voluntary hours put into maintaining archives with meagre resources available. I think that this new role will really throw the doors open on the riches of our city and county and support volunteer led initiatives’.

"Kilkenny County Council now need to explore either the construction or leasing of a state-of-the-art archive facility to store, conserve, digitise and make publicly available our county collection. I believe it to be an essential facility and I would go further to suggest that the possibility of locating it on the brewery site near the Mayfair library along with a new county museum. This should be no less than our ambition in a city which trades on its heritage’.

"Finally, I wish to commend the Heritage Council, now 30 years old and based here in Kilkenny, for rolling out these additional archivist posts with the support of county councils. We share the view that every local authority should have full heritage teams in every local authority in Ireland.

"It would mean that Heritage and Biodiversity Officers would be joined by archivists, archaeologists and architectural conservation officers to lead on implementation of heritage and biodiversity plans at county level. This should be our ambition for heritage conservation, interpretation and celebration as we begin our celebrations of heritage week."