Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave presents government and cabinet minutes to the Sate Paper Office.
Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave hands over government and cabinet papers to Breandán MacGiolla Choille, Keeper of State Papers at Dublin Castle.
The papers contain all the minutes of cabinet meetings up to 1944. For the first time, researchers will be able to access the official records of critical decisions.
Successive Irish governments have been nervous of releasing official papers, even of distant administrations.
The documents date back to the civil war and include a memorandum written by Seán MacBride and intercepted by Free State forces while he was in prison in Newbridge. There are letters from Winston Churchill and Lloyd George to Michael Collins.
Tempering expectations, the Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave said that the documents might not be as informative as some might expect. Cabinet minutes only recorded the decisions made and not the arguments or debates that led to these decisions. Further departmental files have yet to be released.
Breandán MacGiolla Choille praised the Taoiseach's courage in releasing these documents and said it was a progressive step in liberalising access to official records.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 27 February 1976.
