Young, Peter (1950–99), soldier and archivist, was born 16 June 1950 at Holles St. maternity hospital, Dublin, second son of Peter Young, army commandant (originally of Cork) and Mary Young (née Condon), living at 29 Skreen Road, off Navan Road, near McKee Barracks, Dublin. He had one brother, John, and one sister, Mary. Educated at Rockwell College, Co. Tipperary, he joined the defence forces as an army cadet (October 1968), was commissioned second lieutenant (September 1970) and appointed assistant adjutant of HQ Company, 12th Infantry Battalion, Clonmel. As a member of the first cadet class to enrol simultaneously for a degree at UCG as part of the officer training programme, he graduated BA (1971) with history as a major subject. A platoon commander till 1974, he saw UN service in Cyprus (1973) and in the Sinai desert (1973–4) with the 25th Infantry Group on the UN Emergency Force mission after the Yom Kippur war of 1973. Returning to routine duties and further standard training (1974–5), he was made assistant press officer (1976) at Army HQ in Dublin. Here, as a captain, he laid the foundations of his subsequent career and reputation as a welcoming link between the military and the public, and between the historical and operational aspects of Irish military life.
Under existing Department of Defence regulations, he provided the widest possible access to military information. An energetic historian with a practical and attractive personality, he was ideally placed to become defence forces archivist when in 1977 he obtained the diploma in archival studies at UCD. He conducted a thorough survey of extant Irish military records in official and private hands before preservation of national archives became state policy. He excited interest in faded paper where it was previously regarded as a nuisance. After a further tour of UN duty (1980) with UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon), he was promoted commandant (1981) and officially appointed military archivist (1982), assisted by a small specialist staff. Remaining sensibly aware of military and historical sensitivities, he won the trust of his superiors and of those families and individuals who surrendered material to his care. He encouraged public, academic, and media use of Military Archives as it expanded from small beginnings in the ‘Red House’ at Army HQ, to specially adapted premises at Cathal Brugha Barracks, Rathmines. Under the National Archives Act, 1986, he successfully retained Military Archives as a separate repository whose particularly sensitive contents required discreet handling. Having worked with his eventual successor, Comdt Victor Laing, on an exhaustive programme of lectures, photographic exhibitions, and outreach to schools and colleges, he prepared the ground from c.1990 for the eventual release (2003) of closed Bureau of Military History files – witness statements and ephemera from war-of-independence veterans that remained under embargo till after their decease.
Young acted as defence forces liaison officer with film directors, including Neil Jordan (Michael Collins) and Mel Gibson (Braveheart), who engaged military personnel as extras. He shared his official resources and great personal knowledge with media, military enthusiasts, writers, and historians from around the world and worked tirelessly on the council of the Military History Society of Ireland (MHSI), especially in organising ground-breaking conferences on the civil war, the Emergency, and UN peace-keeping missions abroad. In addition, his scholarship found outlets in articles published in An Cosantóir (the defence forces journal) and in the Irish Sword (journal of the MHSI). His work on behalf of the Defence Forces Benevolent Fund in aid of needy veterans and their families was reflected in devotion to his own family life.
He married (March 1972) Annette, daughter of Maurice Dunne of Cork. They had three sons, Eoghan, Ronan, and Peter, and one daughter, Anne Marie, and lived at Castletown, Leixlip, Co. Kildare. Locally, Peter Young was greatly involved and respected in the boy-scout movement and in Barnhall rugby club. His authority was asserted with kindness and a sense of humour that filled barrack corridors with echoing laughter. As pioneering director of Irish military archives, Peter Young won the admiration and true affection of his many friends and the large and persistent group of scholars who availed themselves of his great generosity with time, expertise, and advice. His sudden death at home 27 October 1999, aged 49, from heart failure, shocked all who knew him. After his impressive funeral through Leixlip village, he was buried with full military honours at the nearby Confey cemetery. From a handful of papers he had created one of the great archival collections of Ireland and, with its military identity intact, preserved it for public benefit.