Flanders Fields Bursary Scheme 2022-23
Announcement
12 September 2022The Embassy of Ireland to Belgium is delighted to announce that the Flanders Fields Bursary Scheme will be relaunched in 2022 thanks to the generous support of the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
A total of four student bursaries are on offer to enable students to work on records of soldiers from Ireland who died during WWI over the next two academic years. Fellows will be expected to spend 3 weeks at the In Flanders Fields Museum, Ypres/Ieper, Belgium, where the Irish records are held.
The project aims to fill in the missing gaps concerning the 50,000 fallen soldiers from Ireland. Previously records of these casualties were located only in a book released in 1923. Google has worked with the Irish genealogical history and heritage company Eneclann and the In Flanders Fields Museum to build a new Irish memorial website, making a list of war dead from Ireland available online and making it searchable with this tool.
Launched in 2014, the website remains incomplete. Many names are missing or marked incorrectly. The aim of the student bursaries is to afford the recipients a unique opportunity to access historical archives and contribute to an important part of Irish history.
Students interested in participating should submit their CV alongside a short email text outlining their qualifications and motivation to participate to the address listed below. The Embassy of Ireland to Belgium will then shortlist candidates to whom the bursaries will be awarded.
The bursaries provide for return flights from Ireland to Belgium (vouched travel costs up to a ceiling of €150), accommodation (organised together with In Flanders Fields Museum) and a stipend for the 3-week stay in Belgium.
In addition to the experience of working behind the scenes in a large museum and research centre, bursary recipients will also have the opportunity to take part in a customised, in-depth tour of the Ypres Salient with a focus on Irish involvement during the war.
Two students will be selected to travel during the academic year 2022/23 and a two further students will have the opportunity to travel during the academic year 2023/24. Students should indicate their availability to travel in their application.
The final decision to operate the programme depends on official guidance on international travel and the public health measures in place both in Belgium and in Ireland in the coming months. We will work with the bursary recipients and the Flanders Fields Museum on the feasibility/timing of travel.
Those wishing to be considered should email brusselsembassy[at]dfa.ie by close of business on Friday 7 October 2022.