Ulster Museum Badges
Ulster Museum
Botanic Gardens Belfast
Belfast BT9 5AB 01232/383000
Fax 01232/383003
6 May, 1997
Jonathan Maguire 32 Clonmakate Road Birches Portadown Co. Armagh Dear Jonathan, I have had some of the Museum’s more unusual badges photographed for my departmental records. As they turned out so well I thought they might be of interest to the members of the Medal Society of Ireland.
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Two Victims of the Lusitania
Thursday, 01 May 1997 00:00
J. Morton
by J. Morton During the 1914-18 War, German U-boats operating against Allied shipping were seldom short of targets in the seas around Ireland. Many fine ships were sunk in Irish waters including the 31,500 ton Lusitania, torpedoed off the south coast of Ireland in 1915 with great loss of life. More than eighty years on the controversy still surrounds the sinking of the Lusitania. Allegations that she was deliberately sacrificed in an attempt to bring America into the war and had war materials on board seem to have been neither proved nor disproved.
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The Death of Colonel Vandeleur, The Boer Side of the Story
Saturday, 01 August 1998 00:00
Henk Loots
Compiled by Henk Loots The war diary and biography of Capt. Jack Hindon, master spy and train wrecker, was published in 1916. The following is a free translation of extracts from chapter 23 “Success on the Northern Railway Line.”
On the 27th of August, at a time when there was danger that the commandos would suffer from lack of ammunition, General Muller suggested to Hindon that he should try to “catch a train on the northern line and so get ammunition from this, the only available source.” As Capt. Hindon, after his last rather unsuccessful journey, still had a yearning for a bit of action, it didn't take much to set him in motion again through the bushveld. His men and horses were, however, exhausted and therefore Commandant Groenewald accompanied him with 100 men. From his own corps another 20 odd men went with.
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Deansgrange Cemetery Co. Dublin
Tuesday, 01 December 1998 00:00
Liam Dodd
by Liam Dodd Memorial Inscriptions of Deansgrange Cemetery Volume 3 Upper North Sectioin with kind permission for the Dun Laoghaire Genealogical Society. UPPER NORTH SECTION
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The Cymric in Peace and War
Tuesday, 01 June 1999 00:00
James Morton
by James Morton The most famous of all disasters at sea occurred in April 1912 when the Titanic, on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York, struck an iceberg and sank with the loss of some l,500 lives.
Apart from icebergs, maritime history records ships as having collided with a wide variety of objects including docks, whales, cranes, lighthouses, buoys, submarines and, of course, other ships.
One of the most extraordinary collisions involving a ship happened in Dublin in 1928 when the schooner Cymric ran her bowsprit through a tramcar which was passing over Ringsend bridge - almost certainly the only occasion on which a ship and a tramcar collided.
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Colonel Mark Dillon
Monday, 01 February 1999 00:00
Pat O'Daly
From Pat O'Daly Colonel Mark Dillon, who has died aged 101, was the last surviving Tank Corps officer to have fought at the Battle of Cambrai in 1917 when the use of tanks for the first time in large numbers (474) had a devastating effect. Dillon had joined the Army in 1914 and was wounded three times in France; he was awarded an MC and was twice mentioned in despatches. He won his MC for diverting a tank attack which he realised was heading for a well dug-in German artillery position. There was no radio communication between the tanks and no transport available to help him to contact the lumbering vehicles (which were already under small arms fire), so he set off on foot, running as fast as he could. He had to zig-zag across the road, as a sniper had picked him out as a target.
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Royal Irish Regiment - Mons Medal
Sunday, 01 February 1998 00:00
Michael Kavanagh
by Michael KavanaghOn August 23rd, 1974, the Corporation of the town of Mons presented a commemorative medal to the 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Regiment (as the regiment was disbanded in 1922, I presume the award was made to the members of the Old Comrades Association which has now also ceased as an association in 1984, 300 years after the regiment was first raised). However the medal was presented on the 60th Anniversary of the Defense of Mons by the Royal Irish Regiment.
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General Eamonn de Stack
Sunday, 01 November 1987 00:00
Eamonn Dillon
by Eamonn DillonI was recently given a button and a letter which had belonged to General Eamonn de Stack. The following is the result of research prompted by ownership of these items.
Born at Crotta, Co. Kerry, Stack was given the baptismal name Eamonn but later became known as Eamonn de Crotta. He was educated in France at a school near St. Omer. This was a very select and strict seat of learning and was probably selected by his father through trading contacts.
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A New Regiment
Wednesday, 01 August 1990 00:00
Anonymous
There seems to be a great desire in Belfast that the Royal Irish Rifles, the territorial regiment of Ireland’s chief mercantile city, should be changed into a four battalion corps and renamed the Royal Ulster Rifles. The reason obviously is because, when the territorial system was first introduced in 1881, Ulster was forgotten. Leinster has its Leinster Regiment, Munster its Royal Munster Fusiliers and Erin’s capital, the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. We must, however, point out that the Leinster Regiment was originally the old Canadian Rifles, a name which it still carries. We very much regret to learn that the Commander-in-Chief does not see his way to the establishment of the depot of this gallant corps in one or other of the chief cities of our Western Dominion but the plea is that, owing to the high wages given to the labouring classes in Canada, recruits would not be forthcoming. This perhaps may be true but, at all events, we think the experiment might have been tried.
(From THE REGIMENT, March 1897)
Garda Siochana Golden Jubilee Medal
Thursday, 01 February 1990 00:00
E.H. O’Toole
by E.H. O’Toole
Instituted in 1972 to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of the Force, this medal was conferred on all personnel who were serving in that year. The medal is in base metal, gilt coloured, 34mm in diameter, and was issued unnamed.
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The South African Irish Dec 1939 to Feb 1942
Thursday, 01 November 1990 00:00
Anonymous
There follows extracts from an article by Lt Col H.F.N. Jourdain published in the November 1947 issue of THE RANGER, journal of the Connaught Rangers. It has been submitted by P.J. Power-Hynes. South African Irish military units have been mentioned previously in JOURNAL No 5 Page 14 and No 6 page 22. ****************************** Irishmen all over the world should be interested in the history of a unit raised in Johannesburg with the title 1st South African Irish. The 2nd Battalion never existed as such and the word ’First’ was later dropped from the title.
The Sarsfields
Saturday, 01 February 1992 00:00
Michael Walsh
That great Irish soldier, Patrick Sarsfield, defender of Limerick in the Jacobite war, died of the wounds he received in the battle of Landen, 1693, at Huy. A descendant, Major W.S. Sarsfield, 2nd Connaught Rangers, died of wounds received on the Aisne in September 1914 and until their disbandment in 1922, his son, Lt Patrick Sarsfield, was serving in the regiment.
“STAND TO”, Capt F.C. Hitchcock, 1937
Rarities Department No 11 - Grand Cross of the Orden Pour Le Merite of Prussia
Friday, 01 February 1991 00:00
Anonymous
On 6 June 1740 the century old Brandenburg/Prussia ORDRE DE LA GENEROSITE was renamed ORDEN POUR LE MERITE by King Frederick II (The Great) of Prussia as a reward for meritorious service in the pending war with Austria over the Silesian territories. It was to develop in the next 170 years into the premier military award of Prussia and the German Empire and although mostly given for personal valour in war, like the Victoria Cross and the US Medal of Honour, it was also awarded to senior officers for outstanding leadership and example and to friendly kings and princes as a signal mark of honour and respect.
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A Sad Reminder
Thursday, 01 August 1991 00:00
Michael Walsh
“Irish Times” 7 Sept 1990A church burial is to be held, possibly today, for the body of a man, believed to be a member of the Royal Irish Constabulary, which was exhumed from a shallow grave on a wooded hillside in Co. Tipperary yesterday.
The corpse is believed to be that of Thomas Kirby, who was in his 40’s and who came from the Glen of Aherlow. Research by the Clonoulty Community Council suggest that he was kidnapped by the IRA in Co. Tipperary, probably in January or February 1921, tried by a Sinn Fein court and shot dead at the spot where his body was found at Turaheen, outside Rossmore. The site of the grave was said to have been well known locally among elderly people.
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Three Irish Sailors at Jutland
Friday, 01 November 1991 00:00
James Morton
by James Morton The Battle of Jutland, the greatest naval engagement of the First World War, was fought on Wednesday 31st May 1916 and into the following night. It was the culminating point of several decades of intense rivalry between Britain and Germany for mastery of the seas. In all, more than sixty massive floating steel fortresses, known as battleships and destroyers and torpedo-boats. When it was over many of them had been sunk and thousands of sailors had perished in the grey wastes of the North Sea. This is the story of three Irish sailors who fought and died at Jutland seventy-five years ago.
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Did You Know?
Tuesday, 01 May 1990 00:00
Anonymous
‘Sunday Independent’ 17 Sep 89Fifty years ago today on 17 September 1939 the Royal Navy suffered its first major loss of WW2 when Lt. Schuhart of U-29 torpedoed and sank the 22,500 ton aircraft carrier COURAGEOUS off the south west coast of Ireland. Captain W.T. Makeig-Jones and 518 crewmen were killed in that attack.
Lt. Cdr. Eugene Esmonde, a Tipperary man, writing to his mother three days later, recalled “Poor old Courageous has gone. We in the Fleet Air Arm have lost some brave friends … I have stood on the bridge of Courageous so often that I know every inch … I don’t blame either party. Both sides were obeying orders and the individuals are equally fine.”
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Book Review: Tracks in Europe 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards 1939-1946
Wednesday, 01 May 1991 00:00
Captain C.J. Boardman
Written by Captain C.J. BoardmanThe 5th Dragoon Guards came into being in 1922 when, as victims of army cutbacks, the 5th (PCW) Dragoon Guards were amalgamated with the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons, thus uniting the traditions, standards and battle honours of two famous cavalry regiments. Among their notable officers have been Field Marshal Lord Allenby, Lt Col Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scout movement, and Captain Laurence Oates who perished with Scott on the ill-fated South Polar expedition. Those who were serving in the regiment by 1939 had been set high standards and they were to add further glory to their regiment in the years which followed.
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Bold Men From Co. Meath
Sunday, 01 March 1987 00:00
A.J. Horueck
by Mr. A.J. Horueck, Submitted by Michael McGoonaIn the following pages we have pleasure in placing before the public a record of the names of the men of Meath who, at the Call of King and Country, have voluntarily laid aside their ordinary avocations to take their place in the ranks of that magnificent Irish Brigade, whose achievements on the Battlefields of Europe, in defence of the Sacred Cause of Liberty, have added renewed lustre to the glorious fighting traditions of the Irish Race, the wide world over.
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The Royal Irish Regiment (18th) in the Second Burma War
Sunday, 01 May 1988 00:00
Michael Kavanagh
by Michael Kavanagh In 1850 the 18th Regt. of Foot (The Royal Irish Regiment) was at Fort William, Calcutta under command of Lt. Col. Reignolds with a total complement of 1,105 officers and men. On 19 June 1852 regimental HQ and the right wing of the regiment under Lt. Col. Reignolds embarked at Calcutta to be followed a few weeks later by the left wing under Lt. Col. Coote - 444 and 518 all ranks respectively.
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Book Review: The Royal Irish Rangers 1968-1992 (Review No. 1)
Sunday, 01 August 1993 00:00
Michael Walsh
This 60 page well illustrated book on the life of the Regiment is to be recommended. In addition to a year by year account it has a Roll of Honour, List of Appointments, Honours and Awards and Long Service Medals for Regular and Territorial Army personnel. Could that Sgt. P.B. Morrissey whose name appears again and again in the list of Territorial Efficiency Medals and Clasps be our life member No. 109?
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