Recording the Story of the 18pdr with Sgt Robert Delaney
Photos by John O’Byrne and Michael Coyne
First published on 26 August, 2022. Updated 1 March 2023.
Delighted to release our production of: The Four Courts QF 18-pounder ‘9168’ Field Gun – From Restoration to Museum Display. This video was recorded on location last August in the Curragh Military Museum last August with Sgt Robbie Delaney, Irish Defence Forces Ordnance Corps. This video tells the story of the recently restored Ordnance QF 18-pounder Field Gun ‘9168’; one of the very same that fired the opening shots of the Irish Civil War in June 1922. Variants of the Ordnance 18-pdr served throughout the Great War – primarily with the British Artillery Regiments, in the early years of the National Army following the establishment of the Irish Free State, and with the Irish Defence Forces’ Artillery Corps up until the 1960s. This particular gun was sold off in the 1950s and disappeared across the Atlantic. As it turned out it stood guard outside a diner in Virginia, United States until historian Kenneth Smith-Christmas came across it and recognised it as an Irish Army 18-pdr. From there he contacted Lar Joye in the National Museum of Ireland , not long after a team was on its way over to inspect the gun. Brought home to Ireland the ‘Ivy Patch Gun’ as it was known has now been fully restored to as it was in 1922 by the team at the Ordnance Corps in the Curragh Camp. This is the story of The Four Courts QF 18-pounder ‘9168’ Field Gun – from restoration to museum display. In this video Sgt Robbie Delaney takes viewers through the history and service of the gun and the restoration and conservation process. An incredible undertaking and a credit to all the team involved. The restoration and conservation project is complemented by a exhibition in the Curragh Military Museum, depicting the firing on the Four Courts 28-30 June, 1922.
The 18pdr Field Gun is currently on display in the National Museum of Ireland Collins Barracks, Dublin.
Thank you to Military Archives, Kenneth Smith-Christmas, and British Pathé. This project was supported by Kildare Decade of Commemorations and The Dept. of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
You can red the full story of the Ivy Patch Gun prior to its restoration and its journey back to Ireland in Kenneth Smith-Christmas article by clicking here.
Big thank you to Sgt Robert Delaney Ordnance Corps and the team at the Curragh Military Museum.
