News & Updates

Uinseann MacEoin Collection Arrives at the Military Archives.

We are delighted to announce that the Uinseann MacEoin (1920-2007) Collection was donated to the Military Archives today by his son, Nuada MacEoin.

Uinseann Ó Rathaille MacEoin was a veteran republican, architect, planner, journalist, campaigner for the conservation of Georgian built heritage.  The collection consists of almost one hundred audio cassette recordings of interviews he conducted from the late 1970s until the early 1990s with veteran Irish Republicans about their activities from the 1920s to the 1940s, and nine boxes containing the written and photographic material associated with his three historical publications: “Survivors” (1980) which documents the story of the struggle for Irish independence as told through  interviews with veteran republicans;  “Harry” (1985) the biography of IRA man Harry White; and “The IRA in the Twilight Years” (1997), which tells the story of the IRA between the period 1923-1948 also drawing heavily on the recorded first hand testimony of those who lived it.

The Military Archives holds the statutory obligation under the National Archives Act of being the official place of deposit for the archival records of the Department of Defence and all arms of the Defence Forces.  However, our collecting remit extends beyond that scope, and this significant collection will help us to fulfil our aim of acquiring, preserving and making available the records of Ireland’s wider military and associated heritage.

The processing of the collection will begin immediately, with priority to the digitisation of the audio material and integration into our wider Oral History Project, with the cataloguing of the written and photographic material after that.  We look forward to being able to announce in the near future that this fascinating and significant collection is available for Reading Room access.