“The Bureau of Military History Collection, 1913-1921 (BMH) is a collection of 1,773 witness statements; 334 sets of contemporary documents; 42 sets of photographs and 13 voice recordings that were collected by the State between 1947 and 1957, in order to gather primary source material for the revolutionary period in Ireland from 1913 to 1921. The Bureau’s official brief 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).”

The Bureau of Military History website is now searchable. It has a number of witness statements from people in the Millstreet area from around this time (listed below). For example this witness statement from Con Healy which outlines his activities as a member of Millstreet Battalions Flying Column. It has information about the IRA in Millstreet, downed British Army aircraft, ambushes, reprisals, bank robberies and [read more …] “Bureau of Military History – Millstreet”