Remembrance - Memorials (part 1)

REMEMBRANCE: MONUMENTS & MEMORIALS (PART I OF III)

War memorials commemorating the dead of the Great War can be found both in Ireland and at, or near many battlefields where Irish regiments fought. In Ireland, there is a national memorial and some local ones. These include public monuments, buildings and plaques in churches, educational and commercial institutions. Mr Michael Pegum has developed a comprehensive record of war memorials in Ireland at www.irishwarmemorials.ie For each memorial included, there are details of names and regiments and excellent photographs. The site is updated regularly.

MEMORIALS - NATIONAL
MEMORIALS - LOCAL
MEMORIALS - ABROAD

As in Great Britain, there is no inventory of First World War memorials in Ireland. In 1989, the Imperial War Museum, London, established the 'National Inventory of War Memorials,' to list and classify Britain's memorials. In 1999, the Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association, on a much smaller scale, began a project to list Ireland's war memorials. There is now an excellent storehouse of Irish information at www.irishwarmemorials.ie. This contains information and photographs that are of great value to anyone interested in the impact of the Great War on Ireland.

The 16th Irish Division Memorial Cross at Wyschaete.

MEMORIALS - NATIONAL

A memorial to the 36th (Ulster) Division was erected at Thiepval. In 1925, the Irish National War Memorial Committee decided to erect memorials to the 10th (Irish) and 16th (Irish) Divisions in three of the countries in which they had fought. Three granite crosses were constructed, each weighing about four tons. The crosses were inscribed in Irish (Gaelic) "Do chum Gloire De agus Onora na hEireann" (To the Glory of God and Honour of Ireland). One commemorating the 10th (Irish) Division was erected in Salonika. The cross commemorating the 16th (Irish) Division's service in Flanders was erected at Wytschaete. The 16th (Irish) Division's service in France was commemorated by a cross which was placed in the graveyard of the church at Guillemont, as French law only allowed crosses to be erected on church grounds.

Survivors of the War, military and civilian, wanted to commemorate those who died. In July 1919, a National War Memorial Trust was established in Dublin to commemorate Ireland's war dead. They published "Ireland's Memorial Records," in 1923. Eight volumes list the Irish men and women killed during the war and those of other nationalities who died while serving with Irish regiments. A number of sites for a memorial park were met with opposition from Nationalists in the newly independent Irish Free State. Eventually, a site at Islandbridge was approved. Sir Edwin Lutyens, creator of a number of war memorials in England and France, was appointed architect for the Irish National War Memorial.

The project was jointly funded by the Irish Government and the Trust and built by a workforce equally comprised of Irishmen who had served in the British and Irish armies. Completed in 1938, the gardens occupy approximately twenty acres in the centre of a one hundred and fifty acre park. Features include a thirty foot monolithic cross, a stone of remembrance and a rose garden. A set of "Ireland's Memorial Records" and General Hickie's Wooden Ginchy Cross (made in 1917 with wood salvaged from a ruined farmhouse, it once stood between the battlefields of Guillemont and Ginchy) are housed in two pavilions in the Park.

| next>>

Memorial at Ballycastle.

Royal Munster Fusiliers Memorial in Ypres.