The first tranche from the Mary Robinson Archive was released this week marking an important milestone in the work to preserve, process and make available this incredibly rich collection. Here a brief overview of the archive is given, before highlights from this first release are shared along with an insight into the work ahead.
Overview
This immensely rich archive consists of material relating to Robinson’s work from her student days in the late 1960s to the present and includes material covering her time as a barrister, legislator, senator, professor, President of Ireland, United Nations (UN) High Commissioner of Human Rights, UN Special Envoy for the Great Lakes, UN Special Envoy for Climate Change and for El Niño, founding member and current Chair of the Elders, founder of Realizing Rights - The Ethical Globalization Initiative, and founder of the Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice.
At 660 boxes excluding AV material, it is the largest archive at the University to date and is being catalogued and released in tranches due to its sheer size, which is ever-growing as Robinson, despite turning 80 earlier this year, shows no signs of slowing down. The archive reflects her significant contributions to Ireland and the world and offers a unique insight into a lifetime of dedicated public service.
Material has been arranged across 19 series, reflecting her many roles and the richness of the collection. This first tranche consists of two significant series representing 30% of the overall archive. P143/1, “Legal Work”, relates to her work as barrister, special counsel, legislator and campaigner, and P143/4, “President of Ireland 1990-1997” relates to her term as Ireland’s first female president, from 1990-1997. Read on for more on these two series.
P143/1 - Legal Work
In 1967 Mary Robinson became the first female auditor of the Dublin University Law Society (Trinity College Dublin). During her maiden address, “Law and Morality in Ireland”, she advocated removing the prohibition of divorce from the Irish Constitution, eliminating the ban on the use of contraceptives, and decriminalising homosexuality and suicide.
This address became a roadmap of her work for the following decades. Of particular interest in this series, apart from the address itself, is material relating to the many cases she was involved in, almost all of which were precedent-setting and resulted in significant changes in Irish legislation, thereby drastically improving citizens' rights. They include her work on behalf of the recently retired Senator David Norris, who took Ireland to the European Court of Human Rights and was successful, her work on behalf of Josey Airey which resulted in free legal aid being introduced in Ireland, and her work on the community campaign “Save Wood Quay” which though unsuccessful itself, led to the National Monuments (Amendment) Act 1994 introducing several safeguards to ensure that what occurred at Wood Quay would never happen again.
Also of interest is her work as legislator and legal advisor in Family Law, which included legislation relating to Family Planning, Women and Equality, Child Welfare, Divorce and Discrimination in Civil Service Pension Schemes.
Material in this series also relates to her work with the Law Reform Commission, The Euro Avocats, Brussels, The Irish Centre for European Law (which she co-founded with her husband Nicholas), The International Academy of Trial Lawyers, and The International Commission of Jurists, Geneva of which she was a member from 1987-2014, and President from 2008-2011. It also includes material relating to her time as General Rapporteur, “Human Rights and the Dawn of the 21st Century”, Council of Europe, Strasbourg, 1993-1995, to the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights which later became Human Rights First and to HLCLEP [High Level Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor] of which Robinson was also a member.
P143/4 – President of Ireland 1990-1997
Material in this series relates to Mary Robinson’s role as President of Ireland (December 1990 - September 1997). Ireland’s 7th president, she was the first woman to hold this office and the first non-Fianna Fáil candidate elected. During her seven-year presidency she transformed and expanded the role, assisted in large part by her knowledge and understanding of the Irish constitution. In particular, her legal expertise allowed her to differentiate between imagined and existing legal constraints. She developed new political, cultural, and economic links with other countries, reached out to local communities at home and abroad, and used her platform to bring attention to suffering of others such as her visit to Somalia in 1992.
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A reminder of how unusual her candidacy was considered is clearly evident in the material relating to her election campaign and inauguration. The broadening of the role of President of Ireland during her term can be seen across the series, including in material relating to Áras an Uachtaráin itself, the official residence of the President in office. Alongside her husband Nicholas, Mary had a particular interest in the cultural heritage of the building, and expanded the Presidential role to include opening up the building to the public with many volunteers and community leaders invited to the Áras for private meetings or during special Garden Parties, following extensive work on the building which continued after her term. In the 27 years following her term these invitations have become the norm, and it is easily forgotten that it was Robinson who began this tradition.
Material relating to many visits by President Robinson abroad, as well as visits by other dignitaries to Ireland in hugely insightful. Robinson’s visit to Britain in 1993, where she met Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace, was historic and paved the way for a reciprocal visit hosted by her successor, President McAleese.
Equally, her numerous visits to Northern Ireland (17 visits as President), where she reached out to communities on the ground and politicians of all hues, were hailed by people on all sides as vital in the search for peace and laid valuable groundwork for the Good Friday Agreement signed mere months after her term ended. She became the first Irish President to make an official state visit to the United States of America while in office and used visits all over the world to promote a modern, progressive Ireland, its culture and its people.
One area across both series which gives a fantastic insight into Robinson’s work ethic, influence and character is the wealth and range of correspondence contained in the archive from and to peers and professionals, members of the public including children, and VIPs including world leaders such as his Holiness the Dalai Lama, and Nelson Mandela.
At 188 boxes, material in this first tranche is clearly of immense national and international political and diplomatic importance and consequence and is a valuable resource for students and researchers keen to access primary source material covering a range of areas of interest. Explore the archive catalogue for this release here.
Future releases
Work on cataloguing the remaining 17 series is ongoing and material will continue to be released in tranches, thereby allowing phased access as cataloguing and processing of each series is complete rather than waiting until the work on the entire collection is concluded. Keep an eye out for news of subsequent tranche releases.
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Check out previous blogs relating to work on the Mary Robinson archive here:
