Thousands of papers, photographs, journals and letters relating to the Communist Party of Ireland were handed over to Dublin City Library and Archive this evening.
The collection, which dates from the early years of the 20th century, has been named in honour of the two party members who ensured its survival: Séan Nolan and Geoffrey Palmer.
It had previously been stored in the basement of Connolly Books in East Essex Street in Dublin.
The collection covers all the major national and international events in which members were involved, from the 1916 rising, War of Independence and Civil War, unemployment in the 1930s, participation in local and national elections, the Irish Republican Congress, the Spanish Civil War, both world wars, the Rosenberg Case in the US, the Civil Rights Movement in Northern Ireland and the hunger strikes in Northern Ireland.
The first 60 boxes from the collection are being catalogued, with 100 more to come in due course.
