Trust News  Issue September 2004

 Guide to Irish Military Heritage

 Military News

A guide to Irish military heritage

BRIAN HANLEY

This guide is designed to help those conducting research in to all aspects of Irish military history. Commissioned by the Military Heritage of Ireland Trust, which was established in 2000 to foster knowledge of this heritage, it lists the institutions, archives, public bodies and organizations that specifically hold relevant information on military heritage, relating from the earliest times to the present day.

Also included is a listing of fortifications, battle sites and places in Ireland relevant to military events in its broadest sense. Where possible, email, website and telephone details are also included, as are museum and archival depositories opening times.

The guide is completed with an extensive bibliography listing books and articles that have been published on military history, particularly those in the last twenty years.

To read about Directory of Irish archives 4th edition click here

Brian Hanley is Government of Ireland Research Fellow at NUI Maynooth. He is the author of the critically acclaimed The IRA, 1926-1936 (Four Courts Press, 2002).

 

1-85182-788-9

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€30/£25/$35 hbk

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National Day of Commemoration at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin, on Sunday 11th July 2004

The Chairman and Directors of the Military Heritage of Ireland Trust Ltd. attended the National Day of Commemoration ceremony at the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, Dublin on Sunday 11th July 2004. The commemoration is held annually to honour Irish men and women who died in past wars or in service with the United Nations and is open to the public. The President of Ireland, Mrs. Mary McAleese, and the Taoiseach, Mr. Ahern, led the commemoration.

Mr Ahern, who opened the ceremony, stated "It is fitting that we remember here today that all those Irish men and Irish women who died in past wars or on service with the United Nations." An inter-denominational prayer service was held at the beginning of the ceremony, with prayers from Dr. Ali Qirbi from the Islamic Cultural Centre and Dr. Yaakov Pearlman, the Chief Rabbi of Ireland. These were followed by a prayer from Rev. Donaldson R. Rodgers from the Dublin Methodist Synod, who said "As we remember those who have died in situations of conflict, so we also pledge ourselves to the path of peace."  The inter-denominational prayer service also included the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Rev. John R.W. Neill, and  the Catholic Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin, Dr. Raymond Field.

The prayer service was followed by a dignified military ceremony that was conducted by the Defence Forces, with Cadets from the Military College, Curragh Camp and the No.1 Army Band, with pipers from other units of the Defence Forces.

Maj. Gen. Dermot Earley, a Director of the Military Heritage of Ireland Trust Ltd.,  with a group of Irish veterans of the U.S. and Australian armies.

National appeal for Military History Material

National Museum of Ireland

The National Museum of Ireland is currently organising a major new exhibition, due to open at Collins Barracks  in May 2005. This will tell the stories of Irish soldiers, their families and Irish civilians affected by war, across 450 years of history, from the Elizabethan Wars of the 16^th Century to the Irish UN departure from the Lebanon in 1997.

While the National Museum holds what is probably the finest collection of Irish-related military items in the world, forming an outstanding repository of our country’s martial heritage, we are seeking the donation of items to add still further to the depth and character of our Collections. If you are interested in donating military material to the National Museum, there are a number of ways in which you can help:

The Social & Economic impact of Military Life in Ireland

Items associated with the social interactions between civilians and the military in nineteenth-century Ireland (e.g. artefacts and photos relating to sporting events and to the weddings of army men to local women); objects made locally for sale to soldiers' wives and children; samplers with military themes; and other objects showing the economic and social impact of the British garrison in Ireland, and how it was viewed by the local population.

Soldiering

Objects associated with the Irish Regiments of the British Army that were disbanded in 1922, particularly musical instruments; everyday objects related to World War I soldiering in the trenches such as camp kettles, petrol cans, entrenching tools, helmets, gas masks and material related to gas protection, medical supplies, ID tags. Also, personal objects, letters and photographs used in war that have a link to a particular individual who served between 1550 and 1945.

Uniforms

The Museum holds a large uniform Collection, which we would like to supplement with Wild Geese uniforms (Irish Regiments in the French and Spanish armies), World War One Service uniforms and trench coats, officer’s uniforms from the Volunteer Force (c. 1936), firemen’s protective suits from the Emergency period, uniforms of the Local Security Force, Local Defence Force (Emergency period), and. Emergency period de-mobilisation suits (1940s).

Civilian objects

We are also seeking objects that illustrate how civilians coped with the constraints of the Emergency (1939- 1945), particularly the lack of imported goods, fuel and transportation.  Examples might include civilian clothing adapted from old military uniforms, turf-burning stoves, special recipes, ration books and so on.  As well as this we are interested in objects connected with the German and British internees in the Curragh during the Emergency, and artefacts connected with World War One munitions factories and workers.

If you feel you have material you would like to donate, please contact us at: The Military Collections, Arts & Industrial Division, National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks, Benburb St., Dublin 7. Alternatively email spierce@museum.ie or telephone (01) 648 6487/8.

Please note that donations to the National Museum of Ireland involve a full transfer of ownership, including copyright. In exceptional circumstances we may accept material on a loan basis for a minimum of ten years.  We cannot guarantee that donated objects will be placed on exhibition, however they will become part of the national collection of Irish military material, available for research and preserved for future generations.

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