An Cosantóir

www.military.ie THE DEFENCE FORCES MAGAZINE | 15 Network brings together researchers from across the globe to explore the historical evolution of welfare, care, and medical provision for military personnel, veterans, and their families. Whether focused on healthcare systems, pensions, mental health, or the ethics of caregiving, the study of military welfare requires a strong historical foundation. That foundation enables informed assessment, innovation, and the effective development and administration of care systems. The MWHN also seeks to bridge the past with the present. By applying historical methodologies to contemporary welfare issues, its members contribute to current policy debates and enrich understanding of modern support structures. Today, the Network consists of 245 members affiliated with over 150 higher education institutions across 27 countries. Its work is supported by collaborations with academic journals, museums, research centres, and policy bodies around the world. The venue: Graz, A City of Culture and History Austria's second-largest city after Vienna, Graz is renowned for its vibrant academic life, with four universities and four colleges. Its beautifully preserved Old Town earned UNESCO World Heritage status in 1999. The city's name, historically Gratz or Grätz, likely derives from the Slavic gradec, meaning "small castle." A visit to Graz is incomplete without stopping at the Styrian Armoury (Landeszeughaus), the largest historical armoury in the world. Housing approximately 32,000 pieces of arms and armour, it is a testament to Europe's martial past. I also saw that Graz embraced remembrance. During my stay in the city, I had to cross the Erzherzog-Johann Bridge several times on my way to the University and back. Along the bridge, among the love locks, a solemn installation marked 30 years since the Srebrenica massacre, the genocide of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in July 1995. It remains the first atrocity in Europe to be legally recognised as genocide since the Second World War. The Srebrenica flower was displayed there, standing as a symbol of remembrance, justice, and hope. The University of Graz Founded in 1585, the University of Graz is the largest and oldest university in the region of Styria, currently home to over 30,000 students. It has produced several Nobel laureates, including Erwin Schrödinger (Physics, 1933) and Peter Handke (Literature, 2019), both of whom were associated with Graz during formative periods of their careers. The 2025 Conference: "Rethinking Concepts, Terms and Topics" The study of military history has expanded in recent decades. Once focused almost exclusively on battlefield tactics and high-command strategy, the field now encompasses the lived experiences of soldiers and civilians alike. Social history, gender studies, mental health, and the emotional aftermath of war are now firmly embedded in contemporary research. This year's MWHN conference reflected that evolution. It brought together an interdisciplinary community to explore how military care, support structures, and welfare systems have developed and how they continue to resonate within today's societies. Presentations tackled diverse themes: masculinity and vulnerability, the emotional burden of care, post-war identity reconstruction, social justice, disability, humanitarianism, and the ethics of support. One particularly compelling paper was presented by Blanka Matkovic (University of Warwick), titled Rethinking Identity, Sense of Belonging, and Post-War Normality among Croatian Army Veterans. Drawing on interviews with 300 veterans, her research reframed "normality" (Oas in the desire to "go back to normal" post-conflict) as a fluid, complex construct, shaped as much by pre-war trauma and socio-political conditions as by war itself. She highlighted a pervasive sense of injustice among veterans, many of whom feel disconnected from the societies they once fought to protect and/or change. The Military Service Pensions Archive: redefining the Irish Revolution As the only archivist in attendance, I had the unique opportunity to present the Military Service Pensions Collection (MSPC), as a dynamic archival resource, transcending traditional military history, enabling new approaches to researching welfare and veteran care (including support for dependents), and facilitating a shift from traditional military history toward cultural history. The strength of the MSPC lies in its layered structure. Each pension application, each personal testimony, operates on multiple levels: from individual experience and local history, to institutional dynamics and national historical processes to global history. That way, the archive functions much like an archaeological dig; researchers can "excavate" personal narratives, institutional policy shifts, and broader societal changes, all from a single source base. This 'Russian doll' effect of the pension files makes them a gateway to the Irish Revolutionary period (1916-1923) but also as a springboard for exploring transnational social themes. Indeed, the MSPC invites a bottom-up approach to military history. It shifts the focus away from elite decision-makers and battle-centric narratives, toward the enduring impact of conflict on ordinary lives. These stories, often silenced or overlooked, reveal the long tail of violence: psychological trauma, physical disability, social alienation, and complex post-war adjustments as well as bitterness, grief, struggle, perseverance, and small but significant acts of resilience. Ultimately, this is a profoundly human archive. It documents more than service, sacrifice, and welfare: it helps to reveal how people rebuild. The personal is not peripheral; it is central to understanding how conflict reshapes society from the inside out. Conclusion The fourth MWHN conference in Graz offered more than a scholarly exchange, it was a space of reflection, reconnection, and redefinition. It challenged researchers to think beyond the battlefield and consider the enduring, deeply human dimensions of military service and its aftermath. For those of us entrusted with preserving and making military records accessible, the work is not simply about cataloguing the past. It is about giving voice to those who lived through history, capturing what was left unsaid, and ensuring that the echoes of service and sacrifice continue to inform our present and shape our future.

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