Funding

In 2011, the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht generously granted funding to Military Archives and the National Archives to digitise the Bureau of Military History 1913-1921 (BMH) material and make it available online for the first time. The BMH had originally been launched in paper form in early 2003, but had never been available to a wider audience; researchers had to travel to Dublin to visit Military Archives or the National Archives, where duplicate sets of the witness statements are held. Funding was granted following a successful joint application from both institutions, which highlighted the sustained interest in this collection and its continued relevance as we enter the ‘decade of commemorations’ for the revolutionary period in Ireland.

The Bureau is the largest resource for individual testimonies for the revolutionary period 1913-1921 currently in the public domain and is one of national and international significance, attracting interest from a variety of researchers at home and abroad.

Eneclann Ltd. was contracted to oversee the careful digitisation of the material, some of it in fragile condition. Roomthree Design, who were also contracted for militaryarchives.ie, developed the website.