The search for the names of an estimated 12,000 Irish soldiers currently listed as being from other countries who died fighting for Britain during the first World War is to intensify this week.
The leaders of the Journey of Reconciliation Trust, a cross-Border body set up to recognise the men who served from the North and the Republic, are to meet the British National Library Council to discuss the search.
Official records from the War Graves Commission show that 38,000 Irish people died in the conflict out of a total of nearly 250,000 who fought.
Former TD Mr Paddy Harte, joint head of the trust, believes that up to 50,000 were killed in the war's numerous battles. "Many Irish soldiers were recent ly emigrated and were living in England, Scotland or Wales so they did not join Irish regiments and are therefore not on the official list of Irish dead," he said.
"Our aim is to search throughout the island of Ireland to find the men from here who lost their lives in the Great War."
The search will be conducted in each county through local library archives and they will be asking people in every area if they knew of anyone who served. A complete list of names will then be compiled into a series of books listing the rank and brief family details of those who gave their lives.
Mr Harte said initial appeals in a number of towns and villages had already revealed many more names than were officially listed.
It is also hoped that when the research and book are completed, the names will be engraved on slabs of granite and transported to the Island of Ireland Peace Park in Flanders and built into the wall of honour.
"We would like the current leader of each county council to go out and unveil their section of the wall," said Mr Harte, who heads the trust with former UDA commander Mr Glenn Barr.
The peace park is less than three miles from Messines where the 36th Ulster Division, drawn from the pre-war Ulster Volunteer Force and the 16th Irish Division, largely drawn from the Irish National Volunteers, fought side by side in June 1917.
In the decades to come, the men of the Ulster Division were remembered as heroes within the unionist community in Northern Ireland. In contrast, the Irish Division, which suffered the heavier casualties, was largely ignored in the Republic until recent years, and survivors often suffered scorn and abuse.
The park in Flanders was opened in 1998 by the President, Mrs McAleese, and Queen Elizabeth. Mrs McAleese said at the time that for many years it had been "commonplace" in nationalist Ireland "to question the motives of those from Ireland who fought for the British".