Bank of Ireland reviews rich archive as it marks 240 years in business

Bank of Ireland has announced a programme of activities to commemorate the 240th anniversary of when the bank first opened its doors to the public.

Alongside a €36 million revamp of its College Green base, which has been owned by the bank since 1803 and first opened to customers in 1808, Bank of Ireland announced the limited reopening of access to the old Irish house of lords.

The restoration project of the complex is the single largest investment in the building since it was first constructed, the bank said. It will see windows, staircases, cabling, roofs and other elements of the buildings repaired and upgraded.

From July, the house of lords, which has been closed to the public since the pandemic, will reopen to visitors for guided tours between 10am and noon each Tuesday.

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The bank is also undertaking a review of archival materials, which date back to its foundation in 1783, to consider future use of and access to the material. The archives include lending agreements with the nascent Irish State dating from the 1920s, and correspondence from nationally important figures such as Daniel O’Connell, John Redmond, WT Cosgrave and James Connolly.

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They include the royal charter that established the bank and internal documents from the 1930s detailing the ground rules for employing women. These Rules for Election and Terms of Employment of Temporary Lady Clerks stated that, for a woman to be a temporary clerk, she would need to be nominated by someone on the bank’s board of directors and, if successful, would have to pay the bank £200 as security. The salary for the role was £250 a year.

Other documents in the archive include the contract for the development of the Ulster Canal in the name of engineer William Dargan of the Ulster Canal Company, which goes into precise detail on how the canal should be built.

The archive also reflects the turbulence of the past 100 years. Among its contents is a letter to Hibernian Bank – subsequently acquired by Bank of Ireland – demanding occupation of the O’Connell Street branch dated April 1916 and signed by James Connolly, and correspondence from John Redmond in June 1916 relating to the bank account for the Home Rule Fund.

Internal documents record a meeting of all the Irish banks held at Bank of Ireland in August 1917 stating that “the present political condition of Ireland makes it possible that an organised rejection of British currency notes in payment of Irish bank notes... might take place”. Subsequent documents, dating from 1921, examine how to provide banking services to a new Irish Free State and government departments.

There is also a range of documents from the 1930s and 1940s that detail preparations for war, and measures in place, during the second World War.

The bank has also offered a statue of Daniel O’Connell, carved by Andrew O’Connor in 1932, to the Houses of the Oireachtas for public display.

It hopes to have the revamp of the College Green site completed in time for its 250th anniversary in 2033.