Bray People

Exhibition tells the tale of WWI bracelet that found its way home

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AN exhibition at Mermaid Arts Centre, being held as part of YARN festival of storytelli­ng, illustrate­s how a bracelet found its way home after 100 years.

The bracelet was lost during World War One, and century later it was reunited with the family of its owner Josephine Heffernan.

In 2002 an eight year old schoolboy Romould DuPont found a bracelet in a garden in the French village of Rimaucourt. The bracelet was marked Josephine G Heffernan, ABH 59 (American Base Hospital), USANC (United States Army Nursing Corps) and on the reverse had AEF.

Romould asked his teacher Estelle Lefeuvre to help find out about Josephine and her relatives. A worldwide search began which took 15 years. American records found that Josephine died in 1962, aged 82 and was buried in St Peter’s graveyard in Bray.

The Bray Cualann Historical Society were asked to help in the search and this wonderful exhibition traces their findings telling the story of this amazing women. Josephine was born on Dorset Street, lived in Bray working as a book-keeper and then travelled to America where she trained and signed up as a nurse serving in the US Army. She obtained the rank of chief nurse in the American army at Rimaucourt, France. She left the army with the rank of second lieutenant, the highest rank that a woman could possibly obtain. Josephine served in France in World War 1, where she sat on a wall by a French farmhouse and lost her bracelet - a bracelet which was returned by the French school teacher to her godson Pat Smyth in Ireland just one year ago.

As part of the exhibition, running daily until Sunday the Western Front Associatio­n Dublin Branch will honour North Wicklow and Bray’s lost with the focus on the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, which was the go-to regiment for people from the area in World War 1.

 ??  ?? Brian White, Pat Smyth, Marjorie DesRossier, Cllr Pat Vance, cathaoirle­ach of Wicklow County Council, and Michael Grant, Western Front Associatio­n Dublin Branch, at the Josephine Heffernan exhibition at the Mermaid as part of YARN Festival.
Brian White, Pat Smyth, Marjorie DesRossier, Cllr Pat Vance, cathaoirle­ach of Wicklow County Council, and Michael Grant, Western Front Associatio­n Dublin Branch, at the Josephine Heffernan exhibition at the Mermaid as part of YARN Festival.
 ??  ?? Niamh O’Donnell, Artistic Director of the Mermaid, Cllr Stephen Matthews greatgrand nephew of Josephine Heffernan, and Mary Lorde, chair of the Mermaid board.
Niamh O’Donnell, Artistic Director of the Mermaid, Cllr Stephen Matthews greatgrand nephew of Josephine Heffernan, and Mary Lorde, chair of the Mermaid board.
 ??  ?? Kay Whittle Kehoe and May Harte from Bray Historical Society with historian Marjorie DesRossier.
Kay Whittle Kehoe and May Harte from Bray Historical Society with historian Marjorie DesRossier.
 ??  ?? l O’Donoghue.
l O’Donoghue.
 ??  ?? ogarty.
ogarty.
 ??  ?? Diamond, Frank ‘Prof’ Swords and Patrick Bradshaw.
Diamond, Frank ‘Prof’ Swords and Patrick Bradshaw.
 ??  ?? liam Smith and Bronwyn Smith.
liam Smith and Bronwyn Smith.

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