Major Robert Gregory M.C.
Sunday, 01 May 1994 00:00
Michael Kavanagh
by Michael Kavanagh  I know that I shall meet my fate,
Somewhere above the clouds above;
Those that I fight I do not hate,
Those that I guard I do not love;
My country is Kiltartan cross,
My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor,
No likely end could bring them loss,
Or leave them happier than before.
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public men, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight,
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind.
In balance with this life, this death.
This poem, entitled “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death,” was written by William Butler Yeats to honour the death of the son of Lady Isabella Augusta Gregory, his very close friend, and is a fitting introduction to this essay on the subject of the poem, Major Robert Gregory M.C., Connaught Rangers and Royal Flying Corps.
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Terence Tully D.F.C., Atlantic Aviator
Monday, 01 August 1994 00:00
James Morton
by James Morton Sixty-seven years ago (1927) two Irish airmen, Terry Tully from Carracastle, Co. Mayo and Jim Medcalf from Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford set out from Canada on a flight across the Atlantic to England in a single engine aircraft provided by Carling Breweries who sponsored the flight. Both men were pilots with Ontario Provincial Air Services in Canada, having learned to fly during the 1914-18 War. Tully was originally in the army and was wounded at Gallipoli before transferring to the Royal Flying Corps. He was awarded the D.F.C. for bravery in action and was twice mentioned in despatches.
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Numbering of 1916 and 1917-21 Medals
Tuesday, 01 February 1994 00:00
Paul Murphy
ROLL OF RECIPIENTS OF OFFICIALLY NAMED 1916 MEDALS & 1917-21 SERVICE MEDALS When the 1916 and “Black and Tan” medals were instituted in 1941 a number of officially named pieces were awarded to the next of kin of participants who had died before they could receive them. In addition, “late issues” of both medals since 1941 have been officially named. Unfortunately there is very little information available regarding these officially named medals (whether there is any logic behind the numbering system, number issued, etc.).
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The Victoria Cross of Canada
Monday, 01 December 2008 00:00
James Scannell
by James Scannell The Victoria Cross, created by a Royal Warrant issued by Queen Victoria on 29 January 1856, is the world's highest military award for valour awarded for “most conspicuous bravery, or some daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice, or extreme devotion to duty in the presence of the enemy” to members of the British armed forces and those of some Commonwealth countries and previous British Empire territories.
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Young Ex-Soldier’s Fate in Dublin
Sunday, 01 March 2009 00:00
Liam Dodd
How He Met His Death On Armistice Day by Liam Dodd “Death from haemorrhage of the brain” was the verdict returned at the inquest in Mercer’s Hospital Dublin on 12th inst. touching the death of an ex-soldier, Charles E. Oates, aged 29 years, jeweller, who met his death during a hostile demonstration outside Trinity College on 11th inst. The jury asked the house surgeon, Dr. Moorhead, whether the scalp wound on the dead man’s head had anything to do with the haemorrhage of the brain.
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New Books
Sunday, 01 March 1987 00:00
Michael Walsh
On sale at the RUR Museum was "THE ROAD TO THE SOMME" by Philip Orr (248 pp, profusely illustrated). This well produced volume tells the story of the formation of the Ulster Volunteer Force during the Home Rule crisis of 1912/1913 and its ultimate fate in Flanders as the core of the 36th (Ulster) Division. Anyone who knows Northern Ireland will be familiar with the war memorials which stand in every city, town and village bearing in stone or in bronze the names of the thousands upon thousands who died in the senseless slaughter of World War 1. Here for the first time an Irish author has recorded the true feelings and memories of the survivors of that holocaust, making nonsense of all sentimental claptrap so beloved of generals and official regimental historians. In the reminiscences of an old man who had just visited the battlefields of the Somme for the fiftieth anniversary we read:
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The Cloth Shoulder Insignia of the Irish Defence Forces
Monday, 01 November 1993 00:00
J. McDonnell
INTRODUCTION
This booklet will deal only with those cloth insignia which are commonly called Shoulder Flashes. The Irish Army was relatively slow to introduce such identification signs, the earliest in 1942. There was little development until the F.C.A. (Forsai Cosanta Aitiul or Local Defence Forces) started to wear cloth shoulder titles in 1953. This development took an initial step back in 1959 with the integration of the Volunteer FCA into the Permanent Defence Forces, but re-established itself around 1966. The 6th Brigade (under Co. C.J. Burke) introduced in 1968, a standardisation system of shoulder flashes for this Brigade, based on a divided shield. This innovation subsequently formed the basis for the vehicle identification system introduced in 1972 and in turn for the standardisation of all shoulder titles introduced by the Adjutant Generals brance in 1976. The development of the cloth insignia will be dealt with under size general headings:
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Irish Battalion Shoulder Titles
Monday, 01 June 1992 00:00
Tom O’Neill
by Tom O’NeillThe Irish BN with UNIFIL (Lebanon), which is rotated every six months, is a composite unit in that its personnel are drawn from all units of the PDF. The UNIFIL Bns are serially numbered, quite independently of permanent home Bns, and their last four shoulder titles are shown below.
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U.N.I.F.I.L. Update
Tuesday, 01 November 1994 00:00
Tom O’Neill
by Tom O’NeillFrom the 70 Irish Batt and the 26 Ir Comp all titles to date (76 Ir Batt & 31 Ir Comp) have been of the same colour, namely yellow lettering and border on a green background.
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Air Corps Badges, An Update
Wednesday, 01 February 1995 00:00
Michael Walsh
I have received the following information from Jim Perkins, the 14th Cadets ‘wings’ class badge is illustrated hereunder and is available from him at: H.Q. Engineering Wing, Casement Aerodrome, Baldonnel, Dublin 22.
The reason that it is called ‘14’ is that it is not a ‘YOUNG OFFICERS’ but a Regular Air Corps Cadet Class. See also page 2 of this Journal. Collectors will be aware that last year saw the passing out of the 25th Young Officers Wings Class. The blank space at the bottom of the badge is for the pilots’ name.
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Terence Tully - Atlantic Aviator
Monday, 01 May 1995 00:00
Jim Morton
by Jim MortonI would like to thank Jim Condon for commenting on my article about Terence Tully. This article was based on two separate accounts of Tully and his attempt to fly the Atlantic.
While both of these accounts differed on some specific matters they were generally in agreement. For instance, one account mentioned that Tully had been awarded the DFC while the other confirmed that he had been decorated for bravery while serving in the RAF. In view of this confirmation it seemed logical to assume that Tully had got the DFC.
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Named 1916 and 1917-21 Service Medals
Tuesday, 01 August 1995 00:00
Paul Murphy
by Paul Murphy Following my request for information regarding the name and number on any officially named 1916 and 1917-21 service medals which are held in other collections a number of you were kind enough to furnish me with these details. Unfortunately, the overall response was a lot smaller than I had hoped which means that I still have insufficient information to reach any firm conclusions. The following is a summary of the named medals which have been brought to my attention so far:-
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Ireland and the United Nations
Wednesday, 01 November 1995 00:00
Michael Walsh
During this the fiftieth anniversary year of the United Nations, the Irish Army have been holding U.N. exhibitions throughout the Country, mostly in military establishments. These have varied from those open to the general public to those for U.N. veterans. Military Archives have played a key role in providing video footage, photographs, Unit Journals and other documents which have made these exhibitions most memorable.
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Cloth Insignia of the I.D.F. (Part 10)
Thursday, 01 February 1996 00:00
J. McDonnell
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The Scott Medal for Valour
Wednesday, 01 May 1996 00:00
Eamonn O’Toole
by Eamonn O’Toole When the Irish Free State was founded in 1922 after a six year struggle against the British, the country was in a parlous condition, socially and economically. Although the majority of the people of all Ireland had opted in the 1919 General Election for a self-governing unitary state covering the whole island, the Ulster Unionists, aided and abetted by powerful elements in the British conservative establishment, had forced partition, setting up their own fief in the six north-eastern counties. The remaining 26 counties were ostensibly ruled by a democratically elected parliament (Dail) in Dublin but in fact there were significant numbers of extreme republicans who did not recognise this government and there were extensive areas of the country in which its writ did not run. Within a year the fledgling Free State was engulfed in a bloody civil war which was to last for nine months and which left in its wake more havoc and bitterness than had the previous six years fight with the British.
Gwilym Lewis
Saturday, 01 February 1997 00:00
Michael Walsh
Gwilym Lewis, DFC, First World War fighter ace, died on December 17 aged 99. He was born on August 5, 18971 In a series of letters home which are sustained masters of understatement, Gwilym Lewis conveyed with graphic simplicity the realities of the life of a fighter pilot in the years 1916-18. The letters, sent to his father from France where he served successively with 32 and 40 Squadrons2, were extraordinary examples of the boyish reticence which characterised the young fighting men of the period. The deadly grapple with the enemy in the thin air at high altitude over the Western Front is treated almost with matter of factness. Death - often a matter of protracted agony in those days before the parachute permitted escape from a stricken or burning aircraft - takes place as yet another item on the agenda of daily Squadron life. “The ninth [of the Squadron’s pilots to be killed] was Godlee … He crashed well on our side of the lines and died soon after. He was a pukka Anzac and a jolly good fellow,” Lewis observes matter-of-factly, as aerial combat steadily thins the ranks of No. 32 Squadron in the summer of 1916, in spite of tactical superiority enjoyed by the Royal Flying Corps over the German Air Force at that juncture.
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Major General Patrick Ronayne Cleburne and the Confederate Medal of Honour
Thursday, 01 August 1996 00:00
Frank Nash
by Frank Nash IntroductionDuring the war between the states, Patrick Cleburne of Ovens, Ballincollig, Co. Cork rose from the ranks of being private to become, within two years, one of the leading generals of the confederacy. In 1863 he founded the Order of the Southern Cross and was awarded posthumously the Confederate Medal of Honour.
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Gerald Darling, QC
Sunday, 01 December 1996 00:00
Michael Walsh
Gerald Darling, QC, former leader of the Admiralty Bar, died on September 13 aged 75. He was born on December 8, 1921. Among the many cases in which Gerald (“Bunny”) Darling participated as leader of the Admiralty Bar was formal investigation in 1983 of the disaster involving the loss of the Penlee lifeboat and her crew in 1981. In this hearing he appeared for the Department of Trade. A case of a very different kind was the salvage award he made in 1986 for the rescue by a Spanish ship of a Harrier jump jet which had landed unexpectedly on her fo’c’sle.
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A Serious Problem
Saturday, 01 October 1988 00:00
admin
New decrees in the Soviet Union are designed to cut down the number of medals and decorations. Hitherto the ruling class has doled these out in thousands. Mr. Brezhnev was a particular offender, making himself Hero of the Soviet Union and holder of the Lenin Prize for Literature four times over. In future, awards will be made more ‘democratically.’ Work collectives and other organization of the working class will nominate recipients from among themselves. The honours of Hero of the Soviet Union and Hero of Socialist Labour will be awarded only once to any one person.
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One Who Went Wrong
Monday, 01 May 1989 00:00
John Enticknap
by John Enticknap
Some years ago I acquired a four bar QSA (OFS, Transvaal, SA 1901 and SA 1902) to one 2nd Lt T.T. Stubbs of the Royal Munster Fusiliers. A little tentative research revealed that he had been a student at Trinity College, Dublin in 1894 and was commissioned in the Munsters as a 2nd Lt on 10 November 1900. Three months later he sailed to join the regiment at Cawnpore where he doubtless learned the rudiments of soldiering and in November 1901 he left Bombay as part of detachment of four officers and 130 men for South African and the Boer War.
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The Most Expensive Victoria Cross?
Saturday, 01 August 1992 00:00
admin
The papers report that the decorations of WW1 flying ace Major Edward (Mick) Mannock are to be sold by Sotheby’s on 19 September after being on loan to the RAF Museum for the past twenty years.
Mannock, son of an Irish regular soldier, was the top scoring British fighter pilot with 60 confirmed victories (73 possible) between May 1917 and his death from enemy ground fire on 26 July 1918. He was awarded the VC, DSO and two Bars and the MC and Bar, a unique combination. Sotheby’s medal department consider this to be the most important VC group even to appear at auction and expect it to make around £150,000.
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