New Project to Publish Stories of 1641 Uprising

Thousands of eyewitness accounts recounting the bloodshed and violence of the Irish Rebellion of 1641 are to be made public for the first time.

More than 3,000 testimonies, which have been in storage at Trinity College, Dublin, for almost 300 years, are to be transcribed and digitized in a project to be launched on Tuesday that aims to shed light on one of the darkest moments in Ireland's past.

The Catholic uprising remains one of the bitterest controversies in Irish history, and led to centuries of sectarian hostility. Some argue that a bloodless rebellion by Catholics, who had been increasingly exploited by Protestant settlers, spiraled out of control. Others claim thousands of Protestants were deliberately massacred.