So many men from the region fought and perished during the course of WWI

Fiona Ahern’s talk at the D-Hotel, Drogheda 3 November 2018

On the 12th November 1925, seven years after the end of the war, thousands of people, dignitaries, officials, ex-servicemen, families of the men who were killed and members of the general public, came together in Drogheda for the unveiling of the Drogheda War Memorial.

This memorial had been designed by Drogheda architect, Gerald Barrett and executed in the finest limestone from Sheephouse Quarry, near Donore, by the memorial sculptors, the Madden Brothers of Sheephouse.

So as I live in the village of Bellewstown in Co. Meath, I decided, I would concentrate on the District part of the Memorial and on the men from the areas of Co. Meath which are close to Drogheda, whose names are inscribed on the memorial.

Back in 2014, Paul Black, whose father and uncle both fought in the First World War, and I did a lot of research and compiled a book on the thirty-six men from the Bellewstown area who fought in the war. My research showed that the majority of these men were ordinary villagers, farm workers, shepherds, dairy-men, grooms, postmen. They did not go to war because they needed a job, they already had jobs; they didn’t fight because they were conscripted; instead they volunteered to join the army because they believed it was the right thing for them to do and their duty.

The Ancient Order of Hibernians in Bellewstown were to the fore in establishing the Volunteers. Over 200 young men from the wider Bellewstown area attended that first meeting of the National Volunteers in the village, although this steadied down to around 60 men over the summer of 1914, drilling in army manoeuvres and being trained in the use of weapons on the hill of Bellewstown. By the time the war started on the 4th August 1914, these men must have felt that they were well on the way to being trained soldiers.

The details of the men who were killed from these villages, whose names are inscribed on the Drogheda War Memorial.

DULEEK:

1. Private J Brien of the Irish Guards from the Deans, Duleek, was killed aged 30 at Ieper in September 1917

2. Private Thomas Conlon of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, was killed at the Somme in September 1916, aged 20.

3. Driver Michael Crinion, age 37, of the Royal Field Artillery, who had served in Mesopotamia died of the Spanish Flu in France in November 1918, days before the end of the war.

4. Private John Gibney of the Leinster Regiment, was killed in action in France February 1915.

5. Private M. Gogarty of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers was killed on the 14 October 1918 in Belgium.

6. Lieutenant Nicholas Hatch from Millhouse, Duleek of the Royal Irish Rifles was killed at the Somme on 1 July 1916 aged 20.

7. Private Sam Heeney Royal Dublin Fusiliers, was killed in August 1917 in Ieper aged 19.

8. Private John McKeon from Downstown Duleek was killed aged 28 in France in April 1916.

9. Private John Potter of the Cheshire Regiment was killed in France in July 1916.

10. Private John Wall, a postman, was killed in action at the Somme in September 1916.

SLANE

1. Private Laurence Carolan of the Royal Irish Rifles was killed in action in France in September 1914.

2. Private C. Clarke of the Irish Guards was killed in action in France in September 1914.

3. Sergeant James Clarke, aged 32 of the Royal Irish Regiment, was killed September 1918.

4. Officer Francis Farrell, age 23, of the South Irish Horse, Royal Irish Regiment, was killed at the Somme in March 1918.

5. Cadet Hammick, son of the Rector of Slane died of measles aged 21 in the Royal Military College in Sandhurst England

6. Lance Corporal Francis Ledwidge of the Inniskilling Fusiliers, poet, was killed in Flanders in July 1917, aged 26.

7. Sergeant Charles Lynch of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers was killed in Belgium in November 1914, aged 33.

8. Gunner James McConnon of the Royal Field Artillery was killed in September 1916 aged 26 in Baghdad

9. Private William McConnon of the Lancashire Fusiliers was killed at Ieper in July 1917.

10. Private E. Nulty of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, was killed at the Somme in November 1916.

11. Private J. Vaughey, of the Leinster Regiment was killed at the Somme March 1918.

DONORE

1. Private George Byrne, of the Irish Guards, was killed at Mons in November 1914, a member of Drogheda AOH.

2. Private James Campbell of the Irish Guards, was killed in action at Givenchy in March 1915, aged 25.

3. Private William Finegan of the Leinster Regiment was killed October 1914 in Belgium.

4. Private John Leonard, Royal Dublin Fusiliers, died of wounds in France May 1916.

5. Private Patrick McDonnell, Royal Dublin Fusiliers, was killed in action at the Somme September 1916. STAMULLEN

1. Private Patrick Carr of the Irish Guards was killed at Ieper in November 1914.

2. Private William McGrane of the Royal Irish Fusiliers was killed, aged 27 in Belgium in April 1918.

3. Corporal William Russell of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers was killed in October 1918 in Belgium aged 20.

4. Private Edward Walsh of the Irish Guards was killed in action in France in November 1914.

JULIANSTOWN AND KILSHARVAN

1. Private Charles Keneally, Julianstown, of the Irish Guards was killed in France December 1914.

2. Colonel John McDonnell, Kilsharvan, of the Leinster Regiment, was killed in Ieper in September 1918 aged 40.

3. Private Peter McGrane, Julianstown, of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, was killed in Salonika in October 1916.

BETTYSTOWN, LAYTOWN AND MORNINGTON

1. Seaman Michael Ahearne, Bettystown, of the Royal Naval Reserve was killed in January 1915, aged 20.

2. Private Alexander McDonald, Laytown, of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers was killed in Belgium in August 1916.

3. Seaman Fred Reynolds, Mornington, was killed in action in November 1914 aged 22.