South Kildare World War I dead

In April 1916, either just before or after the Easter Rising, a roll of the men from Castledermot and district who joined ‘his Majesty’s forces to serve for King, home and country’ was published. It gave the names of 122 men from Castledermot village, Kilkea, Prumplestown, Levitstown, Belan and Knockpatrick. Included amongst the list was the name of Rev. John Coffey described as ‘sometimes Catholic curate of Castledermot’. He had served in the Castledermot parish between 1903 and 1908. The list was of course incomplete as almost 2½ years were to pass before Armistice Day on 11th November 1918. Amongst those named was William Whelan whom I believe was the first County Kildare man killed during the course of the first World War. William died on 27th August 1914 and sadly his remains were never recovered and today lie in an unmarked grave. His namesake and fellow Castledermot native, Gerard Whelan, has for some time past been researching and writing up accounts of the men from Castledermot who died in the war. He has put up on Facebook the results of his research on some individual soldiers and the quality of his work in that regard is exceptionally good. On Thursday 11th November Gerard’s book on the men and women from the Castledermot area who served in the Great War will be launched in Coláiste Lorcáin Castledermot at 7pm. The book entitled ‘The Forgotten’ uncovers the story of the 48 men from the area who died in the Great War and also reveals the forgotten stories of the 113 local men and 2 local women who served during and survived that war. Here in Athy the annual Remembrance Sunday ceremony in St. Michael’s cemetery will take place on Sunday 14th November at 3pm. The magnificent war memorial officially unveiled two years ago will be the starting point for the remembrance service honouring the six World War soldiers buried in St. Michael’s Cemetery as well as the World War I nurse, Eleanor Orford from Foxhill, who died on 3rd September 1917 aged 32 years. The memorial records the names of 132 men from Athy and district who died during the war, but ongoing research has revealed the names of at least 6 more Athy men not previously identified as victims of the war. Their names will be engraved on the memorial during the coming year. One of the great difficulties in trying to compile a list of those who enlisted during the Great War was the loss of British army records destroyed as a result of bombing during the second World War. Clem Roche, who published the results of his research in his book ‘Athy and District World War I Roll of Honour’, has continued to research the subject of Athy’s involvement in the Great War. His contribution to our understanding of the tragedies which beset the men of Athy during 1914/’18 is commendable. Next Sunday the remembrance ceremony which was first held in St. Michael’s cemetery in the late 1980s takes place at a time when we have a better understanding of a previous generations involvement in a war which has been described by the historian Peter Johnson as ‘the greatest moral, spiritual and physical catastrophe in history’. The men who fought in that war seldom, if ever, spoke of a time when almost 10 million soldiers lost their lives on various battlefields across the world. One such man was someone I knew as our family butcher. Tim Hickey was an elderly man when I was growing up in Athy in the 1950s and I was occasionally sent to collect messages from his butcher’s shop in Emily Square. I had often heard the story that he had spent time in America and had been involved in the Klondike gold rush, whether that story is true or not I don’t know. What I didn’t know is that the elderly butcher who was a native of Narraghmore had enlisted as a private in the South Irish Horse. Several men from the South Kildare area also joined that same regiment, but Tim Hickey later transferred to the Royal Irish Regiment as a Lance Corporal. He suffered horrendous injuries at Epehy, a village on the Sommes when on 18th February 1918 a German plane dropped a bomb which killed his colleague and fellow Irishman Victor Stoker and injured two other soldiers. Tim’s jaw was shattered and he was required to wear a protective plate on the side of his head for the rest of his life. Tim was part of the lost generation which included local family members such as the Kelly brothers, Denis, John and Owen of Chapel Lane. Also the brothers John, James and Joseph Byrne of Chapel Lane and Edward and Thomas Stafford of Butlers Row. The Hayden brothers, Aloysius and Patrick of Churchtown who were once near neighbours of Patrick, John and Lawrence Curtis, all of whom like the others mentioned died during the Great War. We remember all of those men and their colleagues, many of whom are buried in unmarked graves far from their home town of Athy. The local cemetery of St. Michael’s holds the remains of soldiers Martin Hyland, Offaly Street, Michael O’Brien, Meeting Lane, John Lawler, Ardreigh, Michael Byrne, Green Alley, James Dwyer, Canalside, Thomas Flynn, New Row and Nurse Eleanor Orford of Foxhill. They and their comrades are no longer among the ranks of the forgotten. Two events this week, the book launch in Castledermot on Thursday 11th and the Remembrance Service in St. Michaels on Sunday 14th give us an opportunity to acknowledge our common history and to remember with gratitude the sacrifices of an earlier generation.