Search Help

Search page: Welcome to the search page for the Bureau of Military History 1913-1921 witness statements. There are 1,173 contributors (witnesses) and some 36,000 pages of statements, all of which are searchable in free text below.

Search results will bring you to each page in the witness statements where there is an instance of the word(s) you have searched for, but this text will not be highlighted on the page(s). Note that this search does not include the Bureau of Military History Contemporary Documents, as these have yet to be digitised (except for one example, a book of press cuttings from Easter Week, 1916. The originals are available for research at Military Archives, by appointment.

The entire 36,000 pages of the Bureau of Military History witness statements have been re-typed to allow you to accurately search for people, places, events, organisations, battles and dates. Remember that for the sake of accuracy and objectivity, mistakes in spelling in an original statement have not been altered.

Some tips for effective searching:

  • Be specific. Try to be specific with your search terms and focus in on key words from the event/incident/person’s career that you are researching. For example, type ‘Asgard’ rather than ‘gun’ or ‘Crossbarry’ rather than ‘ambush’.
  • Variations in spelling. When searching for people, in particular, try several variations in spelling. For example, ‘Mac Eoin’, ‘McKeon’ and ‘McKeown’ might refer to the same person in witness statements from a variety of contributors. Many contributors used the Irish form of their name during this period, and this name might differ in spelling from an anglicized form used before or after the 1913-1921 period, for example Charles Burgess is Cathal Brugha.
  • ‘Wildcard’ search. If you wish to expand your search, or you are unsure of a spelling, use the ‘wildcard’ search *example* to search for all words containing a particular phrase or group of letters. For example, *case* will turn up results for ‘case’, ‘cases’, ‘Casement’, ‘briefcase’ etc.
  • Don’t forget the BMH CD and BMH P series. An event, person or place that is not represented in the witness statements may well feature in the contemporary documents (BMH CD) series. The search box on this website does not include the BMH CD as these documents have yet to be digitised (except for one example, a book of press cuttings from Easter Week, 1916). A full PDF index for the BMH CD can be accessed here (note that there is an inbuilt search function within PDF documents). The originals are available for research at Military Archives, by appointment. You may also wish to search the BMH photograph (BMH P) series, the photo gallery for which can be accessed here.