Courtesy of the Ulster Historical FoundationDr Brian Trainor was an indefatigable archivist and a scholar of phenomenal output and boundless enthusiasm. Possessed of superhuman energy and motivation, Brian can justifiably be considered the architect of the modern Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI). As Deputy Keeper of PRONI and subsequently Research Director of the Ulster Historical Foundation (UHF), he enjoyed not just one but two successful careers. Brian continued to be active in research throughout his life, and his passion never waned. He passed away at the age of 90 at his home in Belfast on 22 August 2018 after a life well lived.Footnote1
Brian had retired from PRONI long before my archival career had commenced. However, I quickly became intimately acquainted with both his PRONI legacy and his ongoing work at UHF. For most PRONI staff, his deep booming voice was a familiar fixture which echoed throughout both the Balmoral Avenue and latterly the Titanic Quarter reading and search rooms. Often found secreted in a microfilm booth or hidden annex, Brian was rarely observed without his trusted dictaphone through which he relentlessly recorded transcriptions of pre-1958 wills and other archive sources. I still recall with much appreciation that Brian was one of the first to congratulate me by handwritten letter on my appointment as Head of Public Services at PRONI. From then on I became fully aware of the extent of Brian’s commitment to making archives accessible to researchers and to reaching out to the wider Irish diaspora. His dedication and knowledge of the records was obvious whenever he assisted foreign visitors in their research, particularly during the biannual UHF conferences. Former staff and his contemporaries agree and describe Brian as enthusiastic, robust, focused, direct, and an ambassador not just for Northern Ireland but all Ireland.
Brian was born on 28 May 1928 in Coleraine, Co. Derry~Londonderry, the son of a railway official who died when he was aged three. He graduated with a first class honours degree from Queen’s University, Belfast in 1949. Following a research stint at the Institute of Historical Research in London he returned to Belfast to work as an Assistant Lecturer in History at Queen’s in 1951. In 1956 he was appointed assistant archivist at PRONI under the directorship of the late Kenneth Darwin, where he assiduously threw himself into fieldwork and bringing in new acquisitions of church, estate and business records. Following Darwin’s promotion to Assistant Secretary and reassignment to the Ministry of Commerce, Brian became Director in 1970, a position he held until his retirement in December 1987.
As Director of PRONI, possibly his greatest contribution was the repositioning of PRONI as a centre of excellence in the field of education. Brian and the late W.H. ‘Bill’ Crawford transformed the ethos of the office. The Deputy Keeper Reports for the period recorded hundreds of talks given by staff during this era. It also proved to be an extraordinary time for producing copious transcriptions of original documents, many of which can still be found in the PRONI catalogue. Under his supervision, there was a proliferation of publications, including the ground-breaking Aspects of Irish Social History, 1750–1800: Documents selected and edited by W. H. Crawford and B. Trainor with an introduction by J. C. Beckett in 1969. This volume comprised 81 documents and extracts relating to Irish economic and social history and has been reprinted several times. Brian edited and provided an introduction to the first in the seminal series of Ordnance Survey Parish Memoirs for the district of Antrim which was originally published by PRONI in 1969.
Throughout the 1970s, PRONI employed teachers seconded from the Department of Education NI History Inspectorate (DENI). The first group of teachers from the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors spent a term in PRONI during 1975–1976. The ground-breaking scheme continued for seven years with secondments frequently extended to one-year placements. At its height, between 1978 and 1982, there were three teachers a year seconded to PRONI. This scheme made a substantial contribution to promoting the use of archives in education. This new commitment to education led to the production of resource packs for use in the classroom and the establishment of links with third level education. Bill Crawford was known to have remarked that PRONI was akin to a third Northern Ireland university during Brian’s tenure.
Under his stewardship PRONI relocated to its first ever purpose-built office at Balmoral Avenue in 1972. Brian also oversaw a major expansion of the workforce. To fulfil his vision of a centre of excellence, he took full advantage of the opportunity to increase both the archival and more pertinently the administrative complement. The office witnessed a gradual increase of daily users over the coming years, particularly those interested in genealogical research. In 1974 24% of visitors were undertaking genealogical work; by 1979 that figure had risen to 46%. Simultaneously, numbers of international visitors increased dramatically and by 1979 one in six visitors was from North America or Australia. Exhibition space was incorporated into the new building and the first exhibition, on the history of the linen industry from the 17th century, opened in 1972.
Brian’s involvement in the Ulster Historical Foundation predated his retirement. UHF (previously known as the Ulster Scots Historical Society) had originally been a part of PRONI and was based there. It was responsible for providing a fee-paying genealogical service. Brian took on the role of administrator of the Foundation from 1974, and this afforded him the opportunity to undertake extensive overseas lecture tours on behalf of both UHF and PRONI. He was a keynote speaker at the second World Conference on Records held at Salt Lake City in August 1980Footnote2 and he visited China as part of a UK delegation to the State Archives Bureau of the People’s Republic of China in 1985. During April-May 1986 he undertook an extensive tour of Australia and New Zealand in which he delivered 17 public lectures and appeared in five television interviews and recordings.
After his retirement from PRONI in 1987 Brian threw himself into the work of the Ulster Historical Foundation, which had become an independent historical and genealogical research and publication agency. On behalf of UHF, Brian undertook annual lecture tours across the United States and Canada, promoting the Foundation to new international audiences. Starting in 1989, they were initially conducted by himself and typically involved the use of a rented car or greyhound bus. From 1997 onwards, he was accompanied by the Foundation’s executive directors whom he tutored in this promotional role until his last tour in 2013, when aged 85. The success of these tours is demonstrated by UHF’s continuation of them.
Brian continued to oversee publications and edited the UHF publication, The Directory of Irish Family History Research, until his retirement as Research Director in 2006. He made regular contributions to the Directory’s sister publication, Familia, the annual journal of the UHF’s membership association. He had previously contributed to the first ever volume of Familia in 1985 with an article co-written with Valerie Adams entitled ’Tithe Applotment Books Ireland 1824–38: Gaps in the Archive’.
Despite the backdrop of the Northern Ireland Troubles, Brian embraced an all-Ireland approach to the study of archives and history. He served as Chairman of the Irish Manuscripts Commission in 1976–1977 and again in 1987–1999. Former Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Dr Garret Fitzgerald appointed him chair of the Management Committee of the National Archives Advisory Committee in 1987. Brian later split his research time between PRONI and the National Archives of Ireland (NAI), often spending two days a week at each institution. It is not just the staff of PRONI and UHF who miss Brian but also those who worked at NAI, the Representative Church Body Library and many others.
The Archives and Records Association also owes a debt to Brian. On 26–28 March 1981, PRONI hosted the first ever Society of Archivists (SoA) conference in Belfast, and welcomed over 70 delegates from Great Britain and Ireland. During the 1970s and 1980s Brian encouraged PRONI staff to attend and contribute to SoA conference and events. PRONI’s Deputy Keeper Reports make it clear that this was a deliberate strategy to be inclusive and not isolationist.
Brian was awarded two honorary doctorates, a Doctorate of Letters from the New University of Ulster (now Ulster University) and a Doctorate of Law from the National University of Ireland. In his memory and in recognition of his huge contribution to developing, preserving and promoting archives, PRONI and UHF have established the Brian Trainor Memorial Lecture which will be delivered by an eminent historian on Irish history with a particular focus on archival sources.Footnote3
Brian is survived by his wife Pilar, originally from Madrid, his three children and five grandsons.
Notes
1. My thanks to Trevor Parkhill, Valerie Adams and Fintan Mullan for their help. This obituary draws on the published obituary in the Irish Times of 1 October 2018 by Trevor Parkhill and on Reports of the Deputy Keeper of the Records of Northern Ireland.
2. Jolley, Joann. ’The World Conference on Records — Writing the History of the Heart.’ Ensign 10 (Oct 1980): 72–75.
3. Brian Trainor obituary, UHF, https://www.ancestryireland.com/brian-trainor-memorial-lecture-fund/.