THIS Sunday will see the launch of a World War I Memorial in the garden of Kilrush Community Centre, dedicated to all those from the town who fought in the conflict.
Dr Joe Power will complete the official launch and Paddy Waldron, PRO of the Kilrush and District Historical Society said, “It’s to commemorate everyone that we know of from Kilrush who took
part in the first World War. Some of these memorials are for people who died but we’re looking at everyone who took part.”
Around 400 names are included in the memorial and at the time the population of Kilrush was approximately 3,000 showing how high the level of local involvement was.
Explaining how the information for the memorial was obtained, Paddy said, “Mostly it is based on the work of Charles Glynn who was from Kilrush and was one of the principal recruiters for the army at the time.
“At the end of the war he published a little booklet with the names of all the Kilrush men who had been involved, many of whom had worked for the Glynn company in Kilrush.
“He promised them that if they joined the army that their jobs would be waiting for them. He probably said when they came home but it should have been if they came home.”
Most of the work on the memorial was done by Michael Cusack, the local funeral director and monumental sculptor.
It was designed by John Shannon, while Paddy said that Kilrush Tidy Towns, Clare County Council and local representative Ian Lynch had all been instrumental in allowing it to happen, while the site was donated by the Kilrush Parish Council.
Famously Irish men were encouraged to join the war effort by John Redmond, but found themselves overtaken by history when revolutionary activity began at home.
In more recent years a greater appreciation of the circumstances of the Irish men fighting the Great War has emerged and Paddy says that in some cases they were very active in revolutionary activity after coming home.
“I think those who took part were mostly from the town rather than the farming areas around it. The working class in the town were more in need of the money, and it paid well.
“At the same time a lot of the most successful leaders in the Volunteers, during the War of Independence were people who learned their military skills in the first World War.
“Ignatius O’Neill in Miltown Malbay had been in one of the UK regiments and Bill Haugh who was one of the West Clare leaders and been in the US forces and come home to die because he was so ill, but he didn’t die and was very involved in the War of Independence.”
There is another case of Kilrush men risking their own safety to help while still in the army.
“There’s the famous story of the Kilrush men who were home on leave and they met Countess Markievicz on a train and she convinced them to hand over their weapons to the Irish Volunteers. They were all court-martialled when they came from leave and were lucky to escape with their lives.”
With so much local involvement in the Great War, there is a lot of interest in commemoration, he feels.
“The seed of this idea was sewn at the centenary of the outbreak of the war in 2014. Our history society put on a concert to mark it and Edel O’Brien, the local soprano, sang songs from the first World War period.
“She’s very popular in her own right, but we basically had to lock the doors, because the crowd for the concert was so big.”
Sunday’s launch will take place after the ending of 12pm Mass, at approximately 1pm.
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked with a number of other publications in Limerick, Cork and Galway. His first book will be published in December 2024.