At the outbreak of World War One in
1914, hundreds of local men had enlisted in the British Army at places like
Finner Camp, Enniskillen and different locations in Ireland. Many who had
emigrated to Great Britain, Australia, U.S.A. and Canada joined in their
adopted countries. They joined for a wide variety of reasons including the
opportunity to earn a wage, for a sense of adventure and following the advice
of political leaders like John Redmond and James Craig. One hundred years
later, read and hear for the first time, about what life was like in the
trenches, how they felt about the war and tragically reports of how some of
them died. Over 60 local men died in the First World War which was huge for a
small community.
A Ballyshannon man at the front before Christmas 1914
The following letter is from a Ballyshannon soldier, Michael Doherty, who was a member of the Royal Army Medical Corps. working in a military hospital in Rouen in France in 1914. He was in France for the early Battle of Mons and shared the optimistic viewpoint, that the Germans would be defeated and that the War would soon be over. Unfortunately this optimism was not to be realised, as trench warfare led to a war of attrition, with huge casualties for the next four years.
No. 1 Stationary Hospital
Rouen.
France 15th December 1914
Sir- I being a native of the
picturesque village of Ballyshannon, I thought I might write you a few lines
from the front. Well ever since I left my home last August, and set foot on the
fair land of France, my life has been full of adventure. My first experience
under fire was at Mons. My God what an experience, the bullets whizzed in
hundreds round us as we were bringing in our wounded comrades to a place of
safety, to dress their wounds and then temporarily alleviate their sufferings.
We would then get them hurriedly into the ambulance and get them off as quickly
as possible, as we were then retiring. I dare say you have long heard of that
great strategical movement ,where our Generals saw the time right to turn about
and pursue the enemy, as I think we let him as near Paris as ever he will get.
Ever since that memorable date in September, we are driving the Hun back
towards his proper border, and before long we will not have a German left in
French or Belgian soil.
I being an Irishman, I must praise the Irish Regiments for the valour and endurance, which irresistibly call to mind the deeds of Irish Regiments on the main battlefields in the years that are past. We are proud to be fighting side by side with our Irish brothers, the rallying cry being the defence of the small nations and the moving of Europe from the stranglehold of Prussian militarism.
When the history of this cruel war will be written, in its pages will be found illustrations of the chivalry, gallantry, and dash which have always signalled the Irish soldier. We are today fighting over the same battlefields on which our forefathers covered themselves with glory in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Every time the Kaiser’s legion tried to pierce our lines we have repulsed them with heavy losses. We too have lost many brave men, but our losses are small in comparison to the enemies. We will fight on, encouraged by our past victories, and hope to return soon to our dear homeland with victory inscribed on our standard. Hoping that it may yet fall to the lot of an Irish Regiment to capture the Sausage King.
With every good wish to yourself and all the readers of your esteemed newspaper, for a very happy Christmas.
I am,
Yours faithfully,
No. 4156 John Doherty R.A.M.C
Another well-known Ballyshannon man
who fought at the Battle of Mons, Sergeant Frank Stewart, 2nd
Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusilliers, interviewed later in November 1914,
when he was back at home having been
wounded, spoke of his reaction to fighting at Mons. “Yes, my knees shook, there
is no doubt of it, but that passes away and you think the more about it, it
does not come again.” He spoke about the soldiers’ anxiety about not having a
smoke.
Our fellows got very few cigarettes and yes you never got a smoke all night. Great scott talk about wars, battles and alarms. Every now and then the want of cigarettes and having to do without a smoke when they had them, seems to have been the trouble. Shrapnel and Germans were the only incidents. We turned when General Joffre gave the order but there was not much trouble until the Marne. They would not fire when we were in open order but when formed four the shrapnel came flying.
Frank Stewart was a pioneer of cinema in Ballyshannon in the Market Yard, The Rock Hall and the Erne Cinemas and is still well remembered by the older generation of cinemagoers in the area.
Christmas Eve in the Trenches 1914- A letter to a mother in Erne Street
 |
| Erne Street |
Before World War One began, Patrick
McDonagh was an instructor in the Irish National Volunteers in his native
Ballyshannon and also in the Belleek district. He would have enlisted in the
army, on the advice of the Volunteer leader John Redmond. On the outbreak of
war in 1914 he served in the 2nd
Division of the 4th Guards Brigade, British Expeditionary Force. He
spent Christmas Eve in the trenches on the Western Front from where he wrote a
letter home to his mother Bridget McDonagh 94 Erne Street, Ballyshannon.
I received your last letter all right. We spent our Christmas in the trenches, arriving at the firing line on Xmas Eve. I am sure that you all spent a good Xmas. It is hard on us out here, but these things cannot be helped. Hugh Moan is out here and in my Company. He was wounded early in the war and is out again. Paddy Fleming is here too, he came out from London and joined us while we were having the rest. The country is in a terrible state from heavy traffic. Thank God I am living and well and I shall hope to come out safe. I don’t think that the Germans will last much longer, let us hope so anyway. You can send me a tidy little parcel and make it as secure as possible and put my full address on it. Tell Tommy Moan that Hugh is doing fine and that he and I are together. Let me know how you all spent Christmas and tell me all the news.
I had a narrow escape on Christmas
Day. A German bullet struck the top of my rifle breaking the top off clean and
wounding a sergeant behind me in the trench. I am more than lucky when I was
not killed at different times. I am writing this letter in the firing line and
hope that you will receive it safe. Tell all the people I am asking for them
and hope to see them soon again. We have our priest and doctor with us and the
wounded are well looked after, every man receiving the Last Rites of the
Church. Isn’t that a great blessing? Good-bye and God bless you all and pray
for us out here suffering terribly to save our country from ruin.
P.Mc
Donagh
Patrick’s brother, John McDonagh,
was in the 7th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusilliers and was
killed in action during the Battle of the Somme in 1916. He is remembered on
the Thiepval Memorial along with seven other Ballyshannon men, as their bodies
were not located. Those named on the Memorial
include; Corporal Patrick Melly, Finner, Sergeant Christopher Laird,
Main Street, Private Robert Kearney, Rossnowlagh, Private Patrick Gallagher,
Kilbarron, Private Frederick Armstrong, Private John Joseph McShea, Rathmore,
and Private Hugh Moan. Hugh Moan who later died at the Somme, is mentioned in
the letter from Patrick McDonagh, above. He was also in the Irish Guards and,
as indicated above, he was wounded and returned home for a time. During his
recuperation in Ballyshannon, he visited his former workplace at “The Donegal
Vindicator” newspaper on East Port, where he indicated to the editor that he
didn’t think he would be killed by the Germans. On the 23rd December
1916 Private Hugh Moan was killed in an accidental explosion in the trenches on
the Somme.
A Chaplain’s letter to a wife on the Back Street 1916
Private John Hegarty, of the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Rifles, was the husband of Elizabeth Hegarty of the Back Street in Ballyshannon. His father was a native of Donegal Town. He was aged 29 when he died in action on 16th January 1916. Private Hegarty is buried in the Sailly Sur La Lays cemetery and had been in France nine months when he was killed. His widow received the news of his death on Saturday morning 22nd January 1916. She received a letter from Father D. Aherne, a Redemptorist chaplain, who gave him the last rites. Father Aherne was decorated with the Distinguished Service Order in World War One and, as you will see, had a connection with Ballyshannon.
January 18 1916
Dear Mrs. Hegarty
I offer you my sincerest sympathy in the great grief you have to bear at the loss of such an excellent man as Pte. J. Hegarty Royal Irish Rifles. He was brought to the 20th Field Ambulance, 8th Division, shot in the bowels on Sunday night about 11 p.m. and having received Extreme Unction, he passed quietly away about 11.20 p.m. I buried him in a soldier’s cemetery yesterday, and his name and regiment marks his grave. He gave his life in a very good cause, and make a complete offering of it to God by saying from your heart-“God’s Holy Will be done”. May God bless you and give you strength to bear your heavy cross.
Please remember me to your good
Parish Priest, I gave a retreat in Ballyshannon four or five years ago.
Yours sincerely in Christ
D. Aherne
Rev. Wright writes home to a wife on the Mall 1916
Rev. Jackson Wright was the
Presbyterian minister on the Mall, Ballyshannon from 1908-1925. He served as a
chaplain, with the 36th Ulster Division at the Battle of the Somme,
and was awarded the Military Cross for
his services during the war. In November 1916 Rev. Wright had to write a
difficult letter from the Western Front, to a neighbour of his on the Mall,
informing her of the death of her husband, Sergeant Andrew Galbraith of the
Mall Ballyshannon . He was in the 11th Battalion Royal Inniskilling
Fusilliers and on the 12th
November 1916 he was killed in action and is buried in Bulleul Communal
cemetery. Rev. Wright would have known the family as his church was on the same street in
Ballyshannon, where the Galbraiths lived, and he now had the difficult task of
describing to his wife how he had died:
He went out with a party to examine wire in front of the German trenches and with his usual accuracy of detail he and his officer were last to return. All the others got safely back but your husband and the officer had to take refuge in a shell hole just outside our wire, where, with the aid of rockets they were seen and exposed to rifle fire. He was quickly conveyed to a hospital and died next afternoon.
A letter to a mother in Sheegus before Christmas 1918
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| Kathleen McFadden visiting her uncle Edward's grave in France |
Co. B, 306 Inf.
6
Dec. 1918
My Dear Mrs. McIntyre,
It is with a
heavy heart that I answer your letter of Nov. 15th to inform you, if you have
not already been told, that your son, Edward, was killed in action on Sept
27th, apparently the very day upon which you last heard from him. He died the
death of the brave, fearless, manly soldier that he was in leading his men
against a German machine gun position. A bullet killed him instantly and he was
later buried where he fell, upon the
ridge west of the “Baricade Pavilion” in the depth of the Argonne Forest.
I was personally very much
attached to Corp. McIntyre. He was the finest type of clean, vigorous,
good-natured Irishman. On the march, in
quarters, in trenches, or in action, he was always the same reliable,
quick-witted, fine-appearing soldier, loved by his comrades and his officers,
the life of the platoon, and one of the best non-commissioned officers in the
company. I miss him as much as any of the
dear lads that this ghastly war has taken from us.
God help and
comfort you. If this letter is the first means of your knowing of your great
loss, I hope it may also convey to you a sense of the homage that we feel
toward his mother.The men of the old company join me in extending to you, our
sincerest sympathy and good wishes.
Your servant,
Theodore S.
Kenyon, Capt. 306 Inf.
Up to the 1916 Rising there was lots
of coverage in the local newspaper, “The Donegal Vindicator,” of recruiting
rallies for the British Army in places like the Market Yard in Ballyshannon.
Army bands lent atmosphere to the occasions and rallies often coincided with
the local fair day, in order to attract recruits from the farming community.
Newspaper reports from local soldiers on their experiences in the war were
printed; these were often letters sent to family members or directly to the
newspaper. The army authorities also sent reports to the “Vindicator” on what
regiments were in Finner Camp and reports from the war on events which they
wished to highlight. Coverage of the
World War was not as detailed in the
“Vindicator” after the 1916 Rising which then became a major news story,
locally and nationally.
Footnote. On the 4th November 2016 Anthony Begley, Jim
Melly and Conor Carney, remembered those from the Ballyshannon area who had
died in the First World War, at an illustrated Emerson Lecture in Dorrian’s
Imperial Hotel ,which was attended by upwards of 200 people. This was possibly
the first local remembrance of the First World War in the past one hundred
years.The event was organised by County Donegal Historical Society in
association with The Allingham Arts Festival. In August 2016 large crowds
attended a centenary walk, with Anthony Begley and Conor Carney, through Ballyshannon, which remembered the independence struggle during
the 1916 period. During 2016 "The Donegal Democrat" and "The Donegal Post" in a series of newly researched articles by Anthony Begley,
recorded the memories of local involvement in both major events , which
occurred one hundred years ago .These articles can be found as local history
blogs on the internet at ballyshannon-musings.blogspot.ie
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