An extensive archive belonging to a Belfast family with connections to the Easter Rising is set to be given to the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland. 

James McCabe, from the Mount Eagles area of west Belfast, is the great-grandson of Willie John Nolan, one of the chief organisers of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) in Belfast in the lead-up to the Easter Rising.

Willie John Nolan was also involved in gathering northern republicans at Coalisland the day before the Rising, a gathering that was subsequently aborted. 

Nolan would go on to receive a medal and pension from the Dublin government for his later role with the IRA in the years following the Rising and leading up to partition and independence. 

Items from the collection have already been donated to the National Museum of Ireland and to smaller museums in Dublin.

Mr McCabe has now delivered a batch of items to PRONI in Belfast and is preparing to donate further suitcases of material. 

The family have also spoken to the GAA about donating items from the collection relating to Roger Casement to the new Casement Park stadium.