The Four Courts QF 18-pounder '9168' Field Gun - From Restoration to Museum Display

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 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 1970s. 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 28th-30th June, 1922.

The 18pdr Field Gun is currently on display in the National Museum of Ireland Collins Barracks, Dublin.

Big thank you to Sgt Robert Delaney Ordnance Corps and the team at the Curragh Military Museum.

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.

This video is a production of The Irish Military Heritage Foundation CLG: (RCN) 20203159.

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