An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir October 2016 www.dfmagazine.ie 14 | History Online by CONOR A DULLAGHAN, PHD H aving started to collect Irish military and emergency service history a number of years ago, I needed a way to be able to share it with others. Although born in County Louth, living now in south- eastern ohio meant visitor traffic was going to be very limited. I looked at existing online collections but instead of building a website I considered Facebook as a way to bring my collec- tion to life, making it social. Nowadays, it's an organic refer- ence/online archive for all things from medals to badges, tunics to great- coats, flashes to association pins. Membership is truly global - from New Zealand to California. Many of the more than 10,000 members are serving with, or veterans of, the Irish Defence Forces. I will highlight a few pieces from my own personal collection and fin- ish with a story. The first item is the highly recognisable Irish cap badge. The only difference with this example is the wording 'Drong Áṫa Cliaṫ' (trans- lated as 'Dublin Brigade') as opposed to 'Óglaigh na h-Éireann'. This design is widely attributed to Prof Eoin MacNeill and was adopted by the Irish Volunteers in 1914. (The history and the significance of all aspects of its composition are well documented on www.military.ie.) The white metal example illustrated here is believed to be an officer's badge. Other ranks wore bronze badges. Images of other variations are viewable on the Facebook group page. Early examples dating from 1916-1923, enamelled ver- sions, and Vickers helmet badges are some of the most collectible pieces. In this photo, we have a group of early Volunteer badges. Many of these types were made by Quinn & Co in Belfast. In many instances fol- lowing the Redmond-led split in the Volunteers, the newly formed Irish National Volunteers had their own variations. In the picture of the Na- tional Volunteers badge, the inscrip- tion reads 'Ireland Needs Valour' - a direct attack on those who chose to remain in Ireland. Late last year I received and inquiry as to my level of interest in an "old tunic". To my amazement the seller sent me pictures of what appears to be a 1916-1922 era tunic. A lovely bit of history coming out of West Cork. Some of the leather buttons are missing, which I hope to replace at some point. Following a tip I got regarding old uniforms, I bagged it and placed it in the freezer for a number of days to kill off anything that may have been residing within the fibres and prevent further damage. Following a large auction of 1916 medals and collectibles in New York in January of this year, I was contacted by a man from Dublin saying that he had missed out bidding on his wife's grandfather's 1916/War of Indepen- dence medals, which hadn't been sold. I explained that, normally, contacting the auction house and offering the reserve price should be able to secure them. When this failed, I set about researching the identity of the anony- mous seller of the collection. After a number of weeks, contact was made and the circumstances explained. The seller agreed to meet the family and sell the medals to them. At a family dinner, arranged by the man from Dublin and his wife, they and her father spent some time bemoaning the missed op- portunity to get his father's med- als back into the family possession before they sprung their surprise by presenting him with the medals he thought were gone forever. Tears everywhere, including Ohio! the group page is accessible at: www.facebook.com/groups/ earlyirishmilitaria.

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