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| Erne Street |
Check out 3 Christmas letters written from the trenches of World War One to local families in Ballyshannon. Places mentioned in this blog include Erne Street, Bachelor's Walk, Sheegus, Finner, Main Street, Rossnowlagh, Kilbarron, Rathmore, East Port, The Market Yard, The Rock Hall, The Erne Cinema, the Abbey, Legaltion and Belleek. For more local history an ideal Christmas gift is a quality limited edition hardback edition of "Ballyshannon Genealogy and History" available in A Novel Idea.
A Christmas Letter from the trenches to a Mother in 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.
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.
Ballyshannon born Soldier died in the trenches on 23rd December
Hugh Moan of Bachelor's Walk Ballyshannon 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.
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| Ideal Christmas gift: A Local History book available in a quality limited hardback edition with dustcover as above in : A Novel Idea Bookshop Ballyshannon and Four Master's Bookshop Donegal Town and for postal delivery contact the author anthonyrbegley@hotmail.comAdd caption |
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
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.
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.
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| Kathleen McFadden (nee McIntyre of Sheegus) at her uncle Eddie McIntyre's grave in France |
Edward J. Mcintyre was born in
Sheegus, Ballyshannon on the 9th August 1891, the son of Denis and
Maria Mcintyre. Denis was a local fishermen like many of his neighbours in the
Abbey. Edward had worked at the building trade in Ballyshannon before emigrating
to the United States in 1912. When America entered the war he joined Company B,
306th Infantry and served on the Western Front in France. He was
killed in action in the Argonne Forest region north-west of Verdun on 27th September 1918. Corporal
McIntyre is buried in the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery. A family anecdote
recalls that the McIntyre family at Sheegus ,first heard about his death from a
neighbouring family called Tunney from the Legaltion area. The Tunney family
had received a letter, from one of their family, who was in the same regiment
as Edward McIntyre, and who told them of
his death. The Tunney family went down to the McIntyre’s home and told
them the sad news. Later Mrs. Maria McIntyre received the following letter from
the American Army.
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.
Ideal Christmas gift: A Local History book available in a quality limited hardback edition with dustcover as above in : A Novel Idea Bookshop Ballyshannon and Four Master's Bookshop Donegal Town and for postal delivery contact the author anthonyrbegley@hotmail.com
