In 1924, Ireland gives Boston Public Library an 8-Volume War Memorial Records of Nearly 50,000 Irish Who Died in World War I

In February, 1924, the Irish National War Memorial Committee in Dublin donated eight beautifully decorated folio volumes, containing information on Irishmen who died in World War I to the Boston Public Library central branch in Copley Square.

Published in 1923 by the Committee of the Irish National War Memorial, the the massive project was undertaken to ‘perpetuate the names and personalities of over 49,400 Irishmen w ho fell in the Great War.’

The book was illustrated by noted Irish illustrator and stain glass window artist Harry Clarke, who did the artwork for various book authors including Edgar Alien Poe and Hans Christian Andersen. The book was printed on handmade paper.

Only 100 sets were printed for distribution "among the principal libraries of Ireland," wrote The Boston Globe, "in carrying out the movement started in Dublin in June, 1919, by Field Marshal French, Earl of Ypres, then Governor General of Ireland, for a fitting memorial of Ireland's participation in the war. It was proposed that the memorial should perpetuate the name of every fallen Irish soldier."

The National War Memorial Gardens in Dublin was part of the national effort to commemorate the Irish who died during World War I.

The Ulster Historical Foundation has a video depicting the history of the project and showing many of the inside pages.

"The printing, decoration and binding are the work of Irish artists and workers. The title page and the symbolic borders form an artistic setting- for the memorial records. A silhouette of troops awaiting an attack, cavalry in steel helmets, barbed wire, a machine gun, howitzers, a seaplane, an airplane and a Woden cross are the chief illustrations, all in black and white. Interwoven with the figures are beautiful ornaments from old Irish, Celtic motives, together with the arms of Ulster, Munster, Leinster and Connaught, the four Irish provinces.

In 2015, scholar Marguerite Helmer published Henry Clarke's War: Illustrations for Ireland's Memorial Records, 1914-1918, available through the Boston Public Library.

The Boston Public Library has one of the most significant Irish collections in the United States, said to be third after the Library of Congress and the New York Public Library. The Library is part of the city's Irish Heritage Trail.

Research + Text, Michael Quinlin

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