Photos by Pat Shortall
On Thursday 12 June a large crowd gathered in Kilkenny’s Home Rule Club to mark the launch of a new publication based on research undertaken to discover the men from the Royal Irish Regiment who were entitled to the 1914 ‘Mons’ Star medal.
Co-author Larry Scallan opened proceedings by welcoming everyone to the launch. He explained the premise of the research which was to determine the county of origin, age, date of death, next of kin, of all the soldiers using information that has only become available since records have been digitised in recent years. The main source document that was used to identify a soldier who was awarded the 1914 Star was the Medal Index Card (MIC) and cascading from it included documents such as the Medal Rolls, Gallantry Awards, Silver war badge rolls etc. From this research 1,928 men were identified as having qualified for the medal.
The Star
The 1914 Star Also known as the Mons Star, is a bronze star with a red, white and blue ribbon, reflecting the French Tricolore. It was issued to British forces who had served in France or Belgium from 5 August 1914 (the declaration of war) to midnight 22 November 1914 (the end of the First Battle of Ypres). These were soldiers that were there at the very beginning of the war and so it was primarily awarded to the ‘Old Contemptible’s’, the professional pre-war soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force.
The recipient’s service number, rank, name and unit were impressed on the back. Some medals have a horizontal metal bar worn on the ribbon and inscribed ‘5th Aug.-22nd Nov. 1914’, this distinguished those who had served under enemy fire.
This clasp was replaced by a small silver rosette when the ribbon was worn without the medal.There were approximately 378,000 1914 Stars issued of which 1,928 were awarded to soldiers from the Royal Irish Regiment.
WWI
Larry Scallan explained the origins of the beginning of the First World War and the breakdown of the British Expeditionary Forces (BEF) and that the Royal Irish Regiment was part of the 8 Brigade 3 Division 2 Corps. He also covered off that 25% of these men were casualties of the war based on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission(CWGC) (1914-1921), 44% were taken Prisoner of War (POW), and 5% were discharged between 13 August 1914 and 11 November 1918. He also mentioned the youngest discovered casualty who was Pte. Thomas Barry from Dungarvan who was only 14 years of age when he was killed in Le Pilly, October 1914. The youngest soldier was Pte. Christopher Conroy aged 13, from Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, who was possibly wounded in the Marne in September 1914, discharged in 1915 due to being physically unfit for further war service. He died in 1930 in the Cashel Home aged 30. The youngest POW was John Boland aged 15 from Carrick on Suir, Co. Tipperary, taken POW in Le Pilly in October 1914. He died in 1970.
Co-author Mary Anne Maher spoke about eight men whose stories bring to the fore the premise and the losses of the war. These men were from Kilkenny, Wexford, Tipperary, Waterford, Cork and Westmeath showing the demographics of the regiment and that the men who enlisted while predominantly from the recruitment area of the South East of Ireland. There were men from all parts of the country, North and South.
Thanks
Mary Anne and Larry thanked everyone for attending, especially those who travelled long distances to attend. They also thanked their families, friends and supporters. A big expression of thanks went to Camilia and Gary Bleakley for their expertise in the editing and designing of the publication and to everyone at Perfecto Print for the excellent quality of the publication. Finally they thanked the Kilkenny Great War Memorial Committee for their support with the refreshments at the launch and also the management and staff of the Kilkenny Home Rule Club for facilitating the launch.
Following the official proceedings with the launch everyone was invited to refreshments.
