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Throughout Europe, November 11th is observed as Remembrance Day, when those who lost their lives in two world wars and countless other conflicts are officially remembered. Conversely, in the United States November 11 is observed as Veterans Day, when the service of all Veterans is recalled. The dead of America’s wars are remembered on Memorial Day, which is observed in May.
Ireland, a politically ‘neutral’ country since it’s inception, recently began observing it’s own Memorial Day in July, primarily to commemorate all those members of the Irish Defence Forces who have lost their lives since the foundation of the State.
The Irish Veterans Memorial Project made the decision in May 2001, to observe a special Service for Memorial Day, and welcomed all Veterans, relatives and supporters who came together in remembrance and friendship. Represented were American Legion, British Legion, Irish-Australian Returned Servicemen, Irish Naval Association, Permanent Defence Forces, Reserve Defence Forces, Irish Jewish Association, Irish UN Veterans, An Garda Siochana (Irish Police), among others.
This Service is now an annual event, and the remarks below were delivered by Project Co-ordinator, Declan Hughes, at the Service for Memorial Day, St Mary’s Church of Ireland, Athlone on Sunday 27th May 2001.
For those who don’t quite know, or are not quite sure, what the Irish Veterans Memorial Project is about, well . . . . as Max Bygraves might have said . . . . . “I wanna tell you a story . . .” In 1997, a ring came into my possession that had been removed from the finger of a GI after a battle in Vietnam, and some 30 years later, I was instructed to find the family of that GI.
In 1998, I brought the ring to Washington, to Libby Hatch, Special Projects Officer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund - the organisation that, against all the odds, built America’s National Memorial to the American dead in Vietnam. They also commissioned a half-scale replica of the Memorial, designed to tour communities all across America – bringing the Memorial to people who otherwise would never be able to visit the original.
While there I attended a Media Launch, and at the close of this event, I asked the dumbest question of the year: when would the Travelling Memorial travel to Ireland? To say the least, the reaction was one of surprise.
Why, I was asked, should the Vietnam Memorial travel to Ireland – politically ‘neutral’ throughout the 20th century? A country that had never been involved in the World Wars, Korea, and especially Vietnam.
My response at the time was that if you consider that the 40 million or so Americans who claim Irish ancestry are correct, then you must take that assumption to some further conclusions.
- a percentage must have served in the military
- a percentage must have served in Vietnam
- and a percentage must have died in Vietnam
When Libby dug deeper into official statistics, she discovered that – officially - only one Irish-born was killed in Vietnam – John Driver, from Ringsend in Dublin, who gave as his Home of Record his Home of Birth. However, looking at Irish immigration patterns throughout the 50s and 60s into America, coupled with compulsory military service, thousands of Irish must have served at this time. A percentage must have served in Vietnam. A percentage, sadly, must have died.
We worked on, dug deeper, followed leads and clues, walked through cemeteries, posted messages on web-sites, said prayers. We worked out a tour of Ireland for the Memorial, and convinced the powers that needed convincing, until eventually, with some airtime, the solitary figure of John Driver was soon joined by others who, up to this, had remained unidentified as anything other than more American names on The Wall.
Dubliners joining John Driver include Paul Maher, Ed Howell, Maurice O’Callaghan, Sean Doran, Pam Donovan – 2nd Lieutenant Pamela Donovan who gave up her Irish citizenship to enlist as a Nurse specifically to work in Vietnam – and David Doyle, who lost his life serving with the Australians in Vietnam.
From Cavan, John Coyle and Michael Smith.
George Nagle, from Tipperary – another Irishman serving as an Australian trooper.
Ed Scully and Michael McCarthy from Cork. Terry Fitzgerald from Kerry.
From Limerick, Edmond Landers, John Collopy and Tim Daly.
Anthony O’Reilly from Galway, along with Peter Nee.
Patrick Gallagher and Patrick Nevin, of Mayo. Bernard Freyne from Roscommon.
Robert Fleming from Ulster - as yet no exact birthplace, but served with the Australians.
Phil Bancroft and Tom Birnie from Belfast – Phil with the United States Marines, and Tom with 7th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment.
On this Memorial Day we remember these Irishmen and woman – not as some academic exercise in remembrance, but because now we can identify them. We know who they were, where they came from, where they went to school, what some of their hopes and dreams were before those hopes and dreams ended in a foreign land, in a country most people were not able to find on a map, with place-names we struggled hard to get our tongues around.
In a world which, at the time, many believed teetered on the brink of a World War Three armageddon – they served their adopted land with honour, with respect – and from speaking with buddies who knew them, or knew of them – with extraordinary courage.
We remember the 38,000 Irish who died in World War One serving in Irish Regiments of the British Army. We remember them because we know who they were. Their names are listed. However, some 12,000 are not listed, according to the organisation Journey of Reconciliation Trust. They served with other regiments, and therefore do not appear in the official lists of Irish World War One dead.
The Irish Veterans Memorial Project looks at World War One and asks who and where are those who served and died in that war under American, Canadian, New Zealand, Australian and other flags. We ask the same question for those who served and died in World War Two. We ask the same question for those who served and died in Korea; for those who served and died in Malaya, Borneo, Aden – in Israel, India, the Dominican Republic, in Vietnam, in The Gulf, and a host of other theatres.
For this service today we brought two flags. One you know and recognise, and if any part of that flag has a particular relevance for Irish men and women serving in war zones, it must be the white in the middle. From the ‘Nationalist’ and ‘Loyalist’ regiments that fought side by side in adversity in World War One, to the Vietnam men and women, who came from all four corners of this island, the white between the orange and green is the colour that reaches out to us today.
The second flag is one we have appropriated. It is an official American flag which, especially this Memorial weekend, flies from Federal buildings across the United States. This weekend, POW-MIA flags fly to remember those still listed POW – Prisoners of War, or MIA – Missing in Action.
From the Vietnam era alone, over 2,000 Americans were listed MIA. No-one knows how many Vietnamese, but both countries – and I stress this – both countries have been working together to identify remains from both sides, and still today burials of men killed in a war that ended some 30 years ago are commonplace. On battlefields across Korea, work is now beginning to identify sites and find remains for repatriation and burial back home. I have little doubt that World War Two and other conflicts will come under similar attention in the near future.
Thousands of Irish men and women remain, to all intents and purposes, lost to us –still missing in action until we can identify them, name them, honour them. And of course, we also remember here today, the soldier of the Irish Defence Forces who, while serving with the United Nations in Southern Lebanon, became MIA presumed dead on April 27, 1981. From Inisheer on the west coast of Ireland, to Dayrntar, a Southern Lebanon village, we remember Caomhan Seoighe [pron: Kway-vawn Show-i-ge], of the 48th Infantry Batallion.
Following this Service, when we go across the road for a glass of wine, you will see a small exhibition of photographs. These are of an old early 19th century church building just a mile or so up the road, in a little village called Kiltoom. It is there that this Memorial Project hopes to establish an Historical Research and Exhibition Centre, and which will also include a physical Memorial to all. Thousands of men and women, from all parts of this island, did their duty as they saw fit. Served, often in the most appalling circumstances and conditions, in foreign fields we can’t pronounce. Who came home older than their years, or who returned never to grow old, as we who are left grow old.
I pay tribute to the Board Members of this Project, who have put themselves on the line to form a legal Company to see this project through – and no one knows how many years worth of hard graft now lies ahead of us all. I won’t name them here, but you will, I know, get a chance to meet and talk next door, and learn more about a Project that just might help Ireland remember some more of it’s history.
I believe I should now end in the age old Irish tradition of, in this case, thanking the Rector for the use of the hall. Everyone who knows even a little of our searches here in the heart of Ireland, knows only too well the help and support given the project by the Rev Robert Jones. And on behalf of the Project, I thank you for that support, and your inordinate patience with all of us.
And most especially, I thank each and every one of you for attending here today. I hope it is the first of many occasions that we will get together, in friendship and in remembrance.
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