Alobby group representing Irish family history associations and societies has launched an online petition calling on the Government of Ireland to honour the commitment given in the 2011 Programme for Government to release the 1926 Census of Ireland. The Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations (CIGO), which also has affiliate members in all major Irish diaspora nations, launched the campaign on 6 December, a date with two historical associations for Ireland: on 6 December 1921 the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed and exactly one year later the Irish Free State was established.
Ireland has a sad history with regard to the preservation of census returns. After a series of administrative blunders and the subsequent fire in the Public Records Office during the Civil War in 1922, only fragments of the 19th century returns survive.
The period between 1911 and 1926 was one of great change in Ireland: the Great War, Easter Rising, War of Independence, Partition and then the Civil War. All this upheaval led to significant internal migration and overseas emigration. CIGO is petitioning the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar TD, who has responsibility for the Central Statistics Office, which oversees the census, and Heritage Minister Josepha Madigan TD, with responsibility for the National Archives, to renew the commitment of the previous government to the early release of the original 1926 Census returns. It argues there is clear precedent for early release; both the 1901 and 1911 Census returns were released in 1961, and in 2015 The National Archives in the UK successfully released the 1939 National Register for England and Wales, safeguarding the personal data of those still living by redaction.