A collection of autograph books belonging to prisoners from the time of the Easter Rising have been digitised and are now available to view online. 

It covers a variety of different prisons and places of incarceration, as well as focusing on the lives of the prisoners themselves. The Office of Public Works says the website offers fascinating insight into the lives of those imprisoned during the period 1916 to 1918.

Niall Bergin from Kilmainham Gaol Museum said original autograph books are the most requested items to view in the Gaol's archive.

'People always have stories along the lines of 'my great great grandfather was involved in 1916' but they can't find the records in the military archives or in the UK archives at Kew,' said Neil. 'However, that great great grandfather might just appear in one of our autograph books.'

In total, the Kilmainham Gaol Museum autograph book collection contains over 12,000 names of those who were incarcerated between 1916 and 1923 and the new website will be expanded to include additional autograph books in the coming years.

Click here to view the collection.