The Irish Republic’s Department of Defence has set up a new website for its Military Archives.
The Department of Defence says: “The mission of the Military Archives is to acquire, preserve and make available to the public the documentary heritage of the Defence Forces and the Department of Defence.
“Many researchers confuse the Military Archives as a place of deposit for the records of all Irish people who have served in other armed forces. In fact, the Military Archives holds only the personnel records of those who served in the military of the Irish Free State [and Irish Republic] from 1922 to the late 1970s, as well as material pertaining to the Irish Volunteers and the Independence movement, 1913-1921. Information about British Army records, including those for the Irish regiments, can be obtained at The National Archives at Kew in London.
“Please also refer to useful information in the following document: Information Document on the Irish Regiments of the British Army [PDF 280kb].”
1922 Irish Army Census
“The 90th Anniversary of the Army Census falls on 12th/13th November 2012. The Census returns are a valuable source of information on any person serving in the National Army in November 1922 and as such are of particular use to readers working on genealogical queries.
“The first two phases of this project – digitising the collection and mapping the images to their geographic location – are complete and were launched on the 13th November [2012] to commemorate the 90th Anniversary of the completion of the Army Census. Researchers will be able to browse the collection by [military] post[ings] and discover which, or how many, soldiers were stationed in any particular area.
“The third and final phase of the project [indexing the census returns] is nearing completion and will be released in the coming months. Please check the News and Events section of our website for further updates.”
