Declassified secret files on the early years of the Troubles have gone online for the first time.

People will now be able to access the recently published records from home following an initiative launched at the Magee campus by the University of Ulster and the Public Record Office (PRO) of Northern Ireland this week.

Staff from the university have worked with the PRO to make the records freely available on the University of Ulster’s Conflict Archive on the INternet (CAIN) website: cain.ulster.ac.uk/proni.

The records cover a broad range of issues including security, politics and education.

They comprise a selection of material for the period 1968-79 which is already in the public domain, having been published under the 30-year rule — the timeframe within which official documents are kept hidden from public gaze. Those behind the initiative said that the records provide a valuable online digital resource for researchers looking for information on the Troubles and politics of Northern Ireland during this period.

The new archive was officially launched by Sir Kenneth Bloomfield, a former head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, at an event in the Great Hall, Magee. The records include part of the period when he was a senior Government official.

Dr Brendan Lynn, deputy director of CAIN, which is based at Magee, said: “We have been delighted to cooperate with PRONI in order to add to and supplement the existing resources on CAIN.”