Archives
Blackrock College Archive’s mission statement is to collect, manage and preserve records relating to the history of Blackrock College and its founding by The Congregation of the Holy Spirit. The collection includes documents, maps, drawings, videos, audio recordings, and photographs dating back to the opening of the College in 1860. Sample photos of the collection can be viewed below.
The collection is kept in a purpose-built archive located at the rear of the Creative Arts & Digital Learning Centre. It is partially catalogued and open to researchers, past students and the public by appointment. All queries are also welcome – please contact archivist Nicolas Trainor via email at archives@blackrockcollege.com or phone 01 2752197.
The material kept includes pupil and staff records, as well as documents relating to the College Community and property, kept for the purposes of historical research. We have records of the Past Pupils’ Union and of College societies, students’ publications, news cuttings, prize lists, menus and programmes. We also hold cine films and audiotapes (now digitised) of College events, recordings of concerts and sports events and copies of relevant television and radio programmes. Our photographs and student bills go back to the 1860s, providing an invaluable insight into the early life of the College. Unfortunately, a huge amount of archival material was lost in a fire in the College in 1984, including some 10,000 photographs.
Please get in touch directly to see a more thorough breakdown of our catalogue.
We have a full set of College annuals (hard copy and digital), with the first edition from 1930 which can be viewed here.
Blackrock College Annual – 1930
Our new Blackrock College Oral History Project is available to watch and listen to in the archive.
The efforts of the previous College Archivists, the late Fr. Seán Farragher CSSp. and Ms. Caroline Mullan (who retired in 2018) have been instrumental in compiling and maintaining such a wonderful resource and we are grateful to all those who, over 150 years, have helped us save this wide and varied record of the history of Blackrock College. We would be delighted to accept donations of past student memorabilia collections suitable for permanent preservation.
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