Hi
Thank you for your message.
If you haven't already- you might try:
RIC/GARDA RECORDS: Excellent personnel records were kept from 1816. These can be found at the UK National Archives here: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ HO 184. There are microfilm copies at the National Archives of Ireland, The Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS) and the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI). For each recruit it includes a brief service record, date of marriage and wife's native county, and the name of the individual who recommended him. This is important to identify an exact place of origin, because the recommendations usually came from local clergymen or magistrates who knew the recruit personally. There is a book by Jim Herlihy called, The Royal Irish Constabulary: a complete alphabetical list of officers and men, 1816-1922, 1999. This supplies the Service Number needed to use the Registers quickly and easily. Also worth checking at the UK National Archives is PMG 48: 'Pensions and allowances to officers, men and staff of the Royal Irish Constabulary and to their widows and children'. This dates from the 1870s and usually gives the address of the recipient. The Dublin Metropolitan Police Register is held by the Garda Archives at Dublin Castle, but is more readily available on microfilm at the National Archives of Ireland. It does not give marriage details but does supply a parish of origin. You can find information regarding the Garda here: http://www.policehistory.com/museum.html
Irish Military Archives: http://www.militaryarchives.ie/
British parliamentary papers on Ireland can be found at: http://eppi.dippam.ac.uk/documents/9824/eppi_pages/215093
The National Archives UK ? genealogy search: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/looking-for-person/
The National Archives of Ireland: http://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy1/genealogy-records/introduction/
: Have you checked the immigration records in Australia? Generally, more information was given at the port of arrival rather than the port of departure. The University of Woolongong has produced, on microfiche, a complete index and transcript of all information concerning immigrants of Irish origin recorded on ships' passenger lists between 1848 and 1867. These are useful for finding out an exact place of origin as well as parents' names. The Public Record Office of Victoria has good online databases of settlers at www.prov.vic.gov.au Otherwise, other records may be found in the Colonial Office Papers of the UK National Archives, class reference CO 201. This class contains a wide variety of records, including petitions for assisted passages, emigrants' lists, records of emigrants on board ship, petitions from settlers for financial assistance and much more.
What religion was your ancestor's family? The reality of finding documentation pertaining to births/baptisms/marriages/deaths in Ireland prior to 1800 ? particularly in rural areas ? is that they simply may not exist. Some registers for urban areas pre-dating 1800 may exist ? though often these can be fragmented- as there was an increased need in cities or larger towns to document the population. Please also note that the Church of Ireland was the official church of the country and therefore the bulk of information that does survive for earlier periods is often from these registers. Most Catholic records are held locally - One site which might be of use is - http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/browse/ - where you can ?browse? an overview of available records per county. If you have any difficulty, you could try writing to the parish priest for possible assistance.
Church of Ireland parish registers for the period up to 1870-are public records. Registers are available for about one third of the parishes, however many were destroyed in the Public Records Office in Dublin in 1922. Most are still held by the local clergy, although some are in the National Archives of Ireland and others are in the Representative Church Body Library in Dublin. A list of all surviving registers is available in the National Archives. http://ireland.anglican.org/about/42 and http://www.nationalarchives.ie/. The Anglican Record Project is has created an index to their records: http://ireland.anglican.org/cmsfiles/pdf/AboutUs/library/AngRecord/bunclodyunionindex.pdf
I hope some of this may be of use to you & wish you the best of luck with your search.
Kind regards,