Bureau of Military History (1913-21)
The Bureau of Military History was established in January 1947 by Oscar Traynor TD, Minister for Defence and former Captain in the Irish Volunteers.
The objective of the Bureau was 'to assemble and co-ordinate material to form the basis for the compilation of the history of the movement for Independence from the formation of the Irish Volunteers on 25th November 1913, to the 11th July 1921.' (Report of the Director, 1957).
Over the following ten years 1773 witness statements, 334 sets of contemporary documents, 42 photographs, 12 voice recordings, 210 photographs of action sites Easter Week and a collection of press cuttings were assembled by the Bureau from a variety of people involved in activities of the time.
The establishment of the Bureau gave individuals involved a chance to record their own stories. Members of groups such as the Irish Volunteers and subsequently the IRA, Cumann na mBan, the IRB, Sinn Féin, the Irish Citizen Army, relatives of deceased individuals and people not associated with any organisation were sought out to give as broad a range as possible to the collection. At present there are four civilian archivists working at Military Archives under the direction of Comdt Victor Laing processing the collection.
The Bureau of Miltary History collection is now open to the public.