Since its first appearance the Directory of Irish Archives has become the standard work for those who need introductory information on archival and manuscript collections in Irish repositories. This expanded new edition includes entries for over 250 institutions and organizations, both public and private, which hold archives and are willing to make them available for research. Contact details, including e-mail and website addresses, opening hours, information on published guides and synopses of collections are provided in each entry. Appendices provide information on organizations that hold archives but which cannot make them accessible and on a variety of related organizations and institutions that can provide expert advice.

This work tells you which Irish parish registers exist (all denominations), their starting dates, and where and how they can be located, and it links them to Griffith's Valuation of Ireland, the great survey of property holders taken between 1848 and 1864.

Records of the Office of Public Works more than 30 years old have been transferred to the National Archives, Dublin. The types of public works records are described, then listed with call numbers.

Until surprisingly recently the history of the Irish Catholic Church during the Northern Irish Troubles was written by Irish priests and bishops and was commemorative, rather than analytical. This study uses the Troubles as a case study to evaluate the role of the Catholic Church in mediating conflict. During the Troubles, these priests and bishops often worked behind the scenes, acting as go-betweens for the British government and republican paramilitaries, to bring about a peaceful solution. However, this study also looks more broadly at the actions of the American, Irish and English Catholic Churches, as well as that of the Vatican, to uncover the full impact of the Church on the conflict. This critical analysis of previously neglected state, Irish, and English Catholic Church archival material changes our perspective on the role of a religious institution in a modern conflict.