The first deposit of the Dublin Unitarian Church Collection is comprised of documents relating to the Unitarian community of Dublin and some of its predecessor congregations, located over time at premises in Wood Street, Cook Street, Eustace Street, Strand Street, and St Stephen’s Green. Consisting of over 1700 documents, the collection includes committee minute books, cash books, collection books, subscription lists, petty cash books and other financial material, school registers and account books, correspondence, reports, sermons and lectures. These documents were created and maintained by congregation members, acting in their various official capacities e.g. Management Committee secretaries, Trustees, School Board members etc.

The second deposit consists overwhelmingly of papers relating to the various Trust Funds or Properties operated by the Unitarian congregation. These papers were originally held by Hone and Falkiner, solicitors who managed the trusts on behalf of the congregation. They typically consist of title deeds, wills, deeds of conveyance, legal opinions, building and valuation reports, correspondence with tenants of properties and dealings with the Land Commission. The trusts operated principally during the later 19th and early 20th centuries but the collection also contains some original documents from the 18th century as well as copies of deeds from that period.

The processing of the collection was co-funded by the Dublin Unitarian Church, the Academy’s IAALH project funded by Atlantic Philanthropies and a grant under the Heritage Council’s Museums and Archives Grant Scheme 2007 and the Heritage Management Grant Scheme 2010.

A photocopy of the New Row Congregation Baptismal Register, 1653-1737 was deposited in the Academy Library in March 2020. (Note: The original of this register was missing before the remainder of the collection was transferred to the Academy in 2006-2008.)