Records of Irish war dead go online

The records of 49,000 Irish soldiers who died during the First World War have gone digital in a new online archive

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore, who launched the collection with Northern Ireland’s first and deputy first ministers at Google’s EMEA headquarters in Dublin, said it would serve both as an information portal and a commemoration.

“While the digitisation and online access to this record will be a rich resource for genealogy, most significant is its value in facilitating the simple and important act of remembering the individuals, Irish men and women, who lost their lives in the First World War,” Mr Gilmore said.

The archive — Ireland’s Memorial Records — includes the names of the soldiers from the Republic and the North who fought and died in the war.

People can search details including place of birth, rank, regiment, service number, date of death, and place of burial.

The details have been updated and corrected from records that were first published in 1923.

Google, the In Flanders Fields Museum in Belgium, and the Department of Foreign Affairs worked together in setting up the archive.

Peter Robinson, the North’s first minister, said he hopes it will keep alive the history and stories of those who did not return from the war.

“This work will allow the stories of the fallen to be recorded for the benefit of future generations and will allow us to express our thanks and acknowledge the sacrifice of men who died helping to preserve our freedom,” he said.

Speaking at the launch of the online World War 1 records at Google's Headquarters: pic.twitter.com/iA15Kgku1Y

— Arlene Foster DBE PC #ProudofNI. (@ArleneFosterUK) January 10, 2014

Martin McGuinness, the deputy first minister, added that the fact that 49,000 of the 200,000 Irishmen who fought in the war were killed was evidence of the human impact it had.

At Google in Dublin this morning for the digitising of the name of Irish Poet Francis Ledwidge & 49,000 other Irishmen lost in 1st World War

— Martin McGuinness (@M_McGuinness_SF) January 10, 2014