Ireland's revolution will be digitised

A welcome article in the Irish Times last Friday has confirmed that the Irish Government is to continue funding the digitisation of records relating to the Easter Rising, the War of Independence and the Irish Civil War until 1923.

The decision, taken by Minister for Defence Simon Coveney, will see the digitisation of the Military Service (1916-1923) Pensions Collection project until the end of the Decade of Centenaries. For more on the story visit www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/revolution-to-be-digitised-as-10m-documents-to-go-online-1.2462309.

The latest update to the project's website, comprised of some 2,839 files covering 882 veterans, has included a file showing that the father of the current Irish president Michael D. Higgins had to wait until a successful appeal in 1956 for a service pension - the full story is at www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/stories-of-the-revolution-john-higgins-had-to-wait-22-years-for-pension-1.2462086.

For full access to the collections from the Irish Army's Military Archive website, visit www.militaryarchives.ie/collections/online-collections/military-service-pensions-collection/search-the-collection.

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including my recently released Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. My Pinterest account is at https://www.pinterest.com/chrismpaton/.