Records of Irish soliders from WWI released online
The records of nearly 50,000 Irish soldiers who died in the first World War are now published online, in a new digital directory.
Eight volumes of Irish men who died will be on the list, originally compiled between 1919 and 1923, and made available in the collaboration between the Department of Foreign Affairs, Google and the In Flanders Fields Museum in Belgium.
The records were originally published in "Ireland’s Memorial Records," drawn up at the command of Field-Marshall Sir John French, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and illustrated by Irish artists Harry Clarke.
Claire Connaughton's great uncle Thomas Connolly died in World War 1 in May 1917, but her family have no idea what happened to him.
"We know very little about him," she said. "For us in the family it's a case of 'where had he been before [his death]? … had he been married?"
She's hoping the new directory will give her some of the missing pieces of information.
