Quinnipiac University owns one of the finest collections of extant British papers on Ireland spanning 1780–1923. This collection at the Arnold Bernhard Library provides access to papers normally available only at one or two universities in Ireland and the United Kingdom, or in the archives of the House of Lords and the House of Commons at the Palace of Westminster, London. It offers a rich resource for research into the relationship between Ireland and England, on Ireland’s Great Hunger and other famines worldwide.
The British Parliamentary Papers relating to Ireland from 1801–93 is a highlight of this collection. Consisting of some 4,500 individual items, including bound volumes and individual reports and administrative files, these official papers document various aspects of life in Ireland during the 19th century: the people, their land (or lack of it), education, rebellions, famines and religion. The collection also features the rare four-volume, The Bogs of Ireland, 1812-19, which include 68 magnificent maps of Irish bogs, a copy of the six-volume set on the Disturbances in Ireland published in 1825, and a complete set in 12 volumes of The Parnell Commission.
A treasure trove of fascinating material, the collection of British Parliamentary Papers also includes correspondence on government relief measures—the Commissariat and Board of Public Works series; the correspondence on the state of the unions and workhouses; the reports of relief commissioners, the Board of Health report and a number of significant miscellaneous documents. Government policy, official attitudes and famine conditions emerge in graphic detail.