Army Organisation Board

Administrative / Biographical history:

Following the large-scale demobilisations after the Civil War and the resolution of the Army Mutiny, a concerted effort was made to reorganise the National Army structure and one of the main sections established for this was the Army Organisation Board. It was set up by Lieutenant General Peadar McMahon in May 1925 to “examine into, and report on, the necessary modifications in the Organisation of the Defence Forces to enable them to fulfil the functions of a modern Army in relation to National Defence.”The Board gathered evidence from every commander of a special corps or service, numerous senior staff officers and representative technical officers, while also studying the Army organisations of many European countries and the US. Following on from this work, it set out in great detail the function, structure and establishments for the National Army, while emphasising the need for a clear Defence Policy to be created by the Irish Government of the time.

Scope and Content:

The collection contains numerous final drafts of reports and accompanying appendices on different aspects of the structure proposed for the National Army at this time, including peace and war establishments, and civilian personnel employed in the various barracks. There are also copies of minutes of meetings of the Board, as well as a small amount of correspondence between members of the Board such as the Secretary, Major J.V Joyce, and the Chief of Staff, the Chief Staff Officer or the Training Bureau Staff Officer.