An Cosantóir

12 | Preserving the Past The Air Corps Museum and Heritage Project by Wesley Bourke Photos by Armn Neville Coughlan, Arwn Debbie Keating & Armn Paddy Reilly Linda T he Air Corps Museum and Heritage Project recently presented Military Archives with over 1,000 primary source historical documents relating to the beginning and early development of Irish military aviation. The material includes log books and flying records, beginning with the first aircraft purchased by the state, 'The Big Fella' of Michael Collins fame, and ending with postEmergency types including the Spitfire, Seafire and Hurricane etc. This project owes its success to a small team of civilian archivists who have worked tirelessly to catalogue and database this unique collection, and to the GOC and members of the Irish Air Corps for making it possible. An Cosantóir June 2013 www.dfmagazine.ie The collection will be made available in the near future. The Defence Forces, along with other public sector agencies, has opened up internship vacancies in various sections to candidates via JobBridge, the national internship scheme, which is designed to give people seeking employment greater skills and experience to better place them on the jobs market. One such scheme is the Air Corps Museum and Heritage Project. Many of our readers will be familiar with Armn Mick Whelan (historian and curator of the Air Corps museum) who, with his volunteers, maintains and preserves the nation's only military aviation museum. He is delighted that the Air Corps' archives are finally going to receive the attention he believes they deserve. "Although the archives are out of sight in storage the information, both in print and in photographs, is extensive, going right back to the foundation of the state," Armn Whelan says. "Through JobBridge we now have four archivists working for us," explained Comdt Ronan Verling, Civilian Employment Officer. "We as an organisation benefit with the skill set these interns bring to us, especially on this archival and records project. They Comdt Kennedy (OiC Military Archives) accepts the 1st box from Brig Gen Fry (GOC Air Corps) Colin in turn benefit by the experience they gain here, which will add to their CVs and hopefully assist them in getting employment afterwards." Decades upon decades of material has built up of which it is both a legal requirement and a moral responsibility for the organisation to record and preserve. "We actually don't know what is here," said Armn Whelan, "and our aim is to create a database to catalogue all the records, material,

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