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Renaming (and legalising) an Army

01 August 2023

In this month’s Dictionary of Irish Biography blog, Eoin Kinsella marks the centenary of the legislation that formally established the Irish Defence Forces.

Led by Judge Advocate General Cahir Davitt, the men of the army’s legal department drafted that legislation as well as its first code of discipline, while also shouldering the burden of overseeing the military tribunals that sentenced 81 anti-Treaty IRA prisoners to death during the Civil War. Read the blog on the DIB website.

Article image: Defence Forces personnel present arms at Bodenstown, Co. Kildare, on 20 June 1926, during the annual military ceremony commemorating Theobald Wolfe Tone
Copyright: Photo courtesy of Military Archives, Cathal Brugha Barracks.

Dictionary of Irish Biography

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