The National Archives of Ireland is starting work on a newly transferred collection that is expected to be of great interest to Irish genealogists when it is released next year.
The Compensation (Personal Injuries) Committee collection contains first hand accounts of physical injuries inflicted on members of the public – people of all ages, from all and no sides – as they were going about their daily lives. Some were deliberately targeted or shot. Others were accidentally caught in crossfire or bomb blasts.
The accounts also show the unseen effects of war from those who took their own lives or ended up in institutions, unable to forget the terrible events they had witnessed.
Speaking at the National Archives of Irelandy yesterday, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe said: “The Financial Compensation Files give a previously unseen and perhaps unromantic ground level view of what were this country’s most formative years.
"What makes these files important is what they do not contain. The overwhelming majority of claims are from individuals otherwise unrecorded by history, the silent majority. The files give insight into not just well known events like Bloody Sunday and the shelling of the Four Courts, but also minor actions in every county of Ireland and places as far away as India.
"I have no doubt that when this collection is made available to the public next year that the stories within will be an invaluable source of social and personal histories for historians, academics as well as descendants and family members.”