Was your grandfather, grandmother or relative involved in the 1916 Rising, the War of Independence or the Civil War?
Over 1000 files of ordinary men and women involved in Ireland’s rebellion have just been released as part of the second tranche of the Military Service Pensions Archive.
The files include applications by a wide range of men and women who served between 1916 and 1923 as well as their dependants. They include rank and file veterans with formal military roles as well as many, particularly women, with less formal but important roles such as intelligence gathering and hiding arms and many of the well known figures of the independence struggle.
Many veterans and their dependants applied for pensions under legislation from the 1920s to the 1950s. In the files are many personal details and accounts of their activities and losses as they made a case for why they deserved a pension or dependant’s allowance.
Searching for relatives involves a few keystrokes on the Military Service Pensions archive , mspcsearch.militaryarchives.ie/search.aspx
If you find them The Irish Times would like to hear their story.
You can contact us at news@irishtimes.com or leave a comment below.