The Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI) is pleased to announce that a new collection – Indexes of select British Army monthly returns in Ireland – has been published in the Repository through University College Dublin.
This xml collection is derived from two core samples of material: for the years 1869-73 (during a period of official reform), and 1898-1903 (during a period of international war). The project to digitise military strength returns for the island of Ireland during this time period was funded by a Royal Irish Academy Kevin B. Nowlan research grant received in 2023. The books were digitised by the National Archives in the United Kingdom, and the transcripts were created by a team based at University College Dublin.
The monthly returns that have been digitally preserved are divided into three categories: Districts, Army Strengths and Summary tables. Specific datasets include:
- Dataset listing British Army strengths in Ireland by monthly summaries for 1873,
- Dataset listing British Army strengths in Ireland per military district for July-December 1903,
- Dataset listing British Army strengths in Ireland per monthly summary for January-June 1903,
- Dataset listing distribution of British Army Corps and Regiments in Ireland for July-December 1901.
The table below illustrates some of the information available in the xml datasets – illustrating the numbers of British Army soldiers throughout the island of Ireland – and including information on accommodations, horses, trumpeters and drummers that formed part of army units.
| Date | District | Regiment | Station | Companies | Officers | Serjeants, Drummers, Rank and File | Horses |
| 1869-01-01 | Dublin Division | 6th Dragoon Guards | Longford (H.Q.) | 2 | 11 | 256 | 172 |
| 1869-01-01 | Dublin Division | 6th Dragoon Guards | Curragh | 1 | 1 | 50 | 40 |
| 1869-01-01 | Dublin Division | 6th Dragoon Guards | Athlone | 1 | 1 | 47 | 40 |
| 1869-01-01 | Dublin Division | 6th Dragoon Guards | Castlebar | 1 | 2 | 49 | 40 |
Of the collection, Charles Ivar McGrath, Professor at UCD School of History and President of the Eighteenth-Century Ireland Society, 2022-7 said:
“This project has created a unique set of historical data that will shed new light into the size and disposition of the British Army in Ireland in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The printed monthly returns of the distribution and strength of the army in Ireland held in the National Archives, Kew, are a vast but under-utilised resource.
The project’s digitisation facilitates new research into this important area of Irish history and establishes a template for further digitisation of the resource.”
DRI Director Dr. Lisa Griffith added:
“We are delighted that UCD have ingested this important collaborative collection into the Repository. This collection has a large number of potential re-uses for researchers and the wider public. We are delighted to collaborate once again with a recipient of the Nowlan Grant to ensure that the outputs of this important programme of work are preserved safely, for the long-term, and viewable to all on open access.”
The Indexes of British Army monthly returns in Ireland during the late nineteenth century can now be viewed in full in the Repository.
DRI are delighted to include this valuable collection from University College Dublin in the Repository. Other collections in the Repository include: the Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association Archive, Fingal and the Fight for Irish Freedom, and Cork 1920 collections.
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