War of Independance medal.

gofaster_s13

I have a war of independance medal that my Granny gave me which belonged to my Grandfather(who I never knew) its the same as the medal on the left in the picture below my Granny knew little or nothing as to why he was awarded the medal is there anywhere I can find out the history of the medal such as which unit he belonged to etc.

arnhem44

The one on the left is the combat version so your relative was involved in the fighting during the War of Independence.The medal on the right was awarded to members of the I.R.A. who were not actively involved.A link here to help you start off http://www.irishsoldiers.com/research/tracing.htm

caseyann

http://irishmedals.org/gpage14.html

Thats a great site hope it helps let us know!

caseyann

Here you go.http://irishmedals.org/gpage19.html

This medal was awarded to those who were deemed to have taken part in the Irish War of Independence. There were two types of medal with Comrac bar issued, named and un-named. Named medals were issued to those Killed in Action or who had died between the end of the war and the issuing of the medals in 1941. There is no difference in design between named and un-named medals. COMRAC is Gaelic for Struggle.

The official Department of Defence description of those entitled to a Service Medal with Comrac Bar is Service (1917-1921) Medals were awarded to persons who were in possession of a Military Service Certificate entitling them to a pension under the Military Service Pensions Acts in respect of the period which ended with the Truce of 11th of July 1921. I have covered the application for Military Service Pensions in more detail in Researching Irish Medals section.



The official description of recipients of this medal is Medal, without bar to persons whose service is not deemed to be active military service, but who were members of Oglaigh na hEireann (Irish Republican Army), Fianna Eireann, Cumann na mBan or the Irish Citizen Army for the three months ended on the 11th of July 1921.

Peregrinus

Since they issued a medal, the Department of Defence will have some record of your grandfather, probably extending at least to which unit he was attached to and who he served under. If you're interested in exploring this further I think a good starting point would be to contact them.