Bringing Census 1926 to life: ‘There is something very emotional about seeing your relations’ handwriting from all those years ago’On April 18, Census 1926 will be available to view online for the first time, offering intimate snapshots of life here at the dawn of the Free State. We speak to those behind the €5m three-year digitisation project – the largest of its kind taken on by the National ArchivesOrlaith McBride of the National Archives on the digitisation of the first census of the free sate 1926. John Meagher Today at 06:30It was a momentous day in the early years of the Irish Free State. On the third Sunday of April 1926, around 2,000 members of the newly established An Garda Síochána where charged with carrying out our first census, post-British rule.

Source: Irish Independent March 14, 2026 11:39 UTC