Military Honours
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-16
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Helen McEntee (FG), Meath East

The Government decided in January 1941 that two medals should be struck in respect of service during the 1916-21 period, one for service during Easter week 1916 and the second for subsequent service up to the truce of 11 July 1921. In May 1942, the Government further decided that the second medal, the service medal, should be issued to two groups of people. The medal with bar was to be issued to persons in possession of a military service certificate entitling them to a pension under the Military Service Pensions Acts in respect of the period subsequent to 1916 and prior to 11 July 1921 and to those persons not in possession of a certificate who could satisfy the Minister for Defence that, had they applied for a pension, their service was such as would have merited the award of a pension. The medal without bar was to be issued to persons who were enrolled in the Irish Republican Army, Fianna Éireann, Cumann na mBan or the Irish Citizen Army not less than three months prior to 11 July 1921 but who did not qualify for a pension.
In certain exceptional situations, a medal can be posthumously awarded if no medal was previously issued. However, in order not to diminish the intrinsic value of such medals, this is only done in exceptional cases and only where there is incontrovertible verified evidence available that the criteria for the award of a medal have been met. The process by which applications and petitions or appeals under the Military Service Pensions Acts were investigated and verified was wound up in 1958 and, as the Deputy can appreciate, there are now no surviving members of the old IRA or related organisations who could verify membership. Given the time that has elapsed, there is no mechanism available now by which service and activities can be investigated or verified other than existing departmental records. It is therefore difficult to satisfy the requirements, although it is not impossible and, over the last number of years, there have been people who have satisfied the requirements and been awarded medals posthumously. All applications for a posthumous medal made to my Department are carefully considered. However, there are no plans to put in place wider arrangements or to lower the criteria in relation to the award of posthumous medals.
Certainly, if there is an individual the Deputy is referring to specifically, a request for applications can be addressed to the pensions administration section of my Department, which is based in Renmore in Galway. I can provide the Deputy with the full postal and email addresses.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:28+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-16