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Ireland's Memorial Records 1914-18
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The objective of these eight volumes was to preserve the names of over 49,600 Irishmen who lost their lives fighting in the war. The collection, published in 1923, was compiled by The Committee of the Irish National War Memorial and was lavishly illustrated by the Irish artist Harry Clarke. It is the most complete record known and is unique in many ways. Name, rank, regiment, regimental number, and in most cases, county/place of birth, and place and date of death are recorded. Subscribers can also view the original printed publication for every entry which may contain more information. All 32 counties in Ireland lost men in the Great War. It is likely that every village, town and city in Ireland at the time was touched in some way by the loss. Not all of those listed gave their home addresses as Ireland, but all fought with Irish regiments or considered themselves to be Irish or their country of birth to be Ireland. Unfortunately this record does not give the reasons why so many Irish fought and died in the conflict. While conscription of those living in Britain was certainly a motivating factor, in Ireland the reasons are less clear. Certainly many joined the regiments as an act of patriotic duty, but for many others a military career may have seemed the only option in economically stagnant Ireland. Read Foreword and Introduction from the Original Volumes Place of Birth More than 30,000 declared Ireland to be their place of birth. It should be noted that not all the records had a specific county given. For 741 individuals simply Ireland was recorded. Of the total where a county was actually listed, 11,300 were from the six counties of Northern Ireland while 18,946 came from the remaining 26 counties. Click here for breakdown by county Of the remaining 19,071 deaths recorded in these volumes, no place of birth was recorded for 7,405. The remaining 11,255 deaths were born in a wide variety of countries, throughout Britain, continental Europe and the rest of the World. Click here for breakdown by country Age Only 3,209 entries record the age of the soldier at death. The majority were in their 20s, although there are recorded details about victims who were as young as 15 and as old as 82. Click here for breakdown by age Rank The soldiers who died were overwhelmingly from the lowest ranks. More than 5,000 are recorded with a different rank (or combination of ranks) or no rank was given. Click here for breakdown by rank Deaths by year While there were casualties throughout the war, and in the years thereafter, certain periods were worse than others, depending on the changing dynamic of the conflict. Click here for number of deaths by year |
