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Northern Ireland is especially difficult. The original Gaelic Irish there had been largely dispossessed of their lands in Ulster and driven westward starting in the reign of Elizabeth I. Those Irish who remained were poor and marginalized. The choicest lands were sold, or given to Scotch and English settlers. The practice was continued by Oliver Cromwell in the mid 17th cent. Ulster was also used as a safe haven for Scotch Presbyterians fleeing from the imposition of Anglican practices.
Henry VIII had decreed that all (conforming) churches keep B/M/D records. This law didn't, or wasn't, imposed on "dissenting" religious sects. Unlike the more rigorous Catholic and some Anglican clergy, being able to read and write wasn't a prerequisite for the protestant sects before abt 1800. Hence, they kept few rcds and then, it was often sporadic and sloppy.
Sectarian strife and periodic uprisings or terrorist acts by both protestants and catholics resulted in tit-for-tat church burnings. The animosity continues to this date.
B/M/D recording was made mandatory for all protestants ca 1845. The law was extended to Catholics in 1864. Therefore, good and fairly comprehensive rcds don't exist for NI before this date.
Unfortunately, the comprehensive civil rcds were centrally kept at a location called the Four Courts in Dublin. In 1922, during the Irish Civil War, the IRA seized the building and stored munitions in it. Somehow the munitions exploded setting fire to 1,000 yrs of collected Irish history. Some, but not all, counties had kept duplicates. The IFHF has built its current database on these rcds and the surviving parish church registers.
The other main source of genealogy rcds was the censuses. These had been performed starting in 1831 every 10 years. In 1916, the British destroyed all of the censuses rcds prior to 1901 - a tragedy for everyone - under the pretext that it contributed to the WWI war effort. I suspect pure spite as the primary motive.
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