The cemetery owes its name to a small farmhouse 90 metres to the west, known to the troops as "Irish House". It was begun in June 1917 by the 16th (Irish) Division, and used at intervals until September 1918.
In Row A are the graves of 33 Officers and men of the 1st Gordon Highlanders, killed in action in December 1914 in the 3rd Division's attack on Wytschaete, and reburied here by the 11th Royal Irish Rifles in June 1917.
The ground was in German hands from April 1918 to the end of the following August.
The cemetery contains 117 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War. 40 of the burials are unidentified but there is a special memorial to one casualty known to be buried in the cemetery. The cemetery was designed by W H Cowlishaw.