On Armistice Day, November 11, 2004, the Irish National War Memorial Gardens were vandalized. Many of the monuments were defaced with yellow spray-painted, anti-British slogans, including the words "Traitors", "Burn in Hell", and "Free Iraq". The Irish National War Memorial Gardens were designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and were built in 1948. Half of the workers were former WWI ex-British Army veterans, and half were ex-Irish Army veterans. Mechanical equipment was restricted during the construction of the Memorial Gardens, in order to provide as much employment as possible. The first official dedication of the memorial occurred on the 90th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme on July 1, 2006.