Brave brothers of Patrick Street remembered...
Descendants of the Clarke and Cunningham family from Patrick Street were in attendance at the Remembrance Day Mass with Fr Colm O’Mahony and Revd. Iain Jamieson, St Peter’s Chruch of Ireland, in the Augustinian Church to remember their ancestors who fought in WW1.
Four Clarke brothers from Patrick Street went to fight in WW1. They were the sons of Patrick and Anne Clarke. Unfortunately only two of them would return.
Family members included Valerie Kierans, Maeve Holly, Gerry Carroll, Pat Carroll - grand-nieces of Private John and Private Patrick Clarke and granddaughters and grandson of Private Michael Cunningham - and Sabrina Kierans, great grand-niece of Private Patrick and Private John Clarke and Great- Granddaughter of Private Michael Cunningham.
The two Clarke brothers Patrick and John served with the 2nd Battalion South Lancashire Regiment.
Private Patrick Clarke was killed in action in France on Wednesday September 20th 1914 age 35. There he is rests with his fellow comrades.
His brother Private John Clarke died on the 28th of October 1917. He is buried in the war memorial Cemetery, Vevey, Switzerland.
Both men’s names are engraved on the Cenotaph in Mary’s Street, Drogheda where their family also remembered them on Saturday November 3rd at the Remembrance ceremony organised by Mayor Frank Godfrey. Their brother-in-law Michael Cunningham who was married to their sister Annie (nee Clarke) also fought in WW1. Michael too had a sibling who fought in WW1. The Cunningham brothers were the sons of James and Julia Cunningham.
Private Michael Cunningham served for the entirety of the war, but he sustained many health complications as he was gassed repeatedly.
His ill health led to his early death in 1935, leaving his wife Annie and eight young children behind. The last of Michael’s nine children Ms Bernadette Cunningham passed away this year, 100 years since the war ended, having lived her 91 years on Patrick Street. Bernadette passed on the war medals to a new generation, just as they too had been passed on to her by her own mother Annie. They are a symbol of the sacrifices and bravery the Clarke and Cunningham families of Patrick’s St. made in WW1.