Not a Great War helmet, but certainly inspired by one. This original Irish Vickers helmet fully restored back to its 1920s factory configuration. During the 1920s the Irish military was looking for a new helmet. They settled on the German design. There is no proof this was done as a way to irritate the British, and likely had more to do with the design being good one. An attempt was made to procure surplus M16s from Germany. Due to the Treaty of Versailles Germany would be unable to fill the order. The solution was to have the design remanufactured by the Vickers company of Northern Ireland, who would go on to produce some 10,021 in 1927. The contract for the liners would go to T. Smith and Sons of Dublin. The restoration for this particular helmet was a challenging one as the design is in actuality quite different from the German model. The color used here is dark green, a small patch of original paint survived on this helmet and was matched. The liner was carefully duplicated from an original example. Unlike the German model the pads are larger, and the liner band is about half the width. Also unique to the Irish model, the liner is held into place by three copper harness rivets peened over copper washers. The liner pillows are made from chambray cloth. Even the chinstrap is slightly different than the German design having only one adjustment slide instead of two. If you have one of these rare helmets, and it needs to be brought back from the dead. A&SR can make it happen.