Ireland – Recreational, cultural and sporting services – Contract for Education and Outreach Programme Management Services

The National Archives has been very successful in recent years in broadening the understanding of our role as the keeper of the records of the State amongst the general public. This enhanced public engagement has seen more people visit the National Archives online and in person(outside of the usual academics and researchers) and connect with our collections through new and more creative ways, such as exhibitions (61,000 people attended Society and State in 2024), publications, talks, seminars, tours including our annual exhibition at the Ploughing Championships, our expanded social media (31,256 followers on social media platforms) as well as more collections available online including the 1926 census with over 50m hits to the website. Our proposed collaboration with The National Archives UK (TNA) as part of the Ireland UK 2030 Collaboration Project, Shared archives, shared futures: Ireland and Britain in paper, practice and partnership will build on this work. This project will require project management support across the range of work packages proposed as part of the application. These services are built into the funding approved in March 2026. Over the coming four years we are also developing our exhibition and outreach programme to make available a core series of collections. These will include an exhibition on our Famine Relief Collections and Distress Papers in 2027 as part of Ireland Canada 180 which we will also bring to the Ploughing Championships, a programme on the Financial Personal and Property Compensation Files 1916-1923 which recently transferred to the National Archives from the Department of Finance. Education and Outreach Programme Management Services are required to support the National Archives work in these areas. We do not have the internal skills or resources to deliver these services.