Medal Society of Ireland

by Jim Condon

James Francis Fitzgerald was my great grand uncle and to us children, who knew that his sea-trunk was still in the attic, was something of a mystery. My interest remained dormant until ny mother showed me the transcript she had made of a letter, written by James when he was in South America. I was intrigued, but what really inspired me to try to discover something about him was the discovery of an old photograph album which had belonged to James's sister, in which there was a photograph of him (reproduced here). This photograph - which established for me a tangible contact with this elusive ancestor - was the spur that I needed.

by Eamonn O'Toole

ln Journal No. 12 (May 1990) I gave a brief account of known medals of the Loyal Orange Order in Ireland and suggested that someone with the right contacts might perhaps extend the study of such awards. There was no response to this, as usual, but Jimmy Breen recently drew my attention to a new Orange medal and lent me a sample for examination. Like some of the others it is closely associated with contemporary events in Northem Ireland and will be of some interest to future historians.

by Michael Kavanagh

On Friday 20th February, 1914, a deplorable calamity overtook the Fethard (Co. Wexford) lifeboat and plunged the little Irish village into mourning for nine of its gallant crew who gave their lives in the attempt to save the crew of the Norwegian schooner ‘Mexico‘.

The vessel was bound from South America to Liverpool, with a cargo of mahogany logs and when off the south coast of Ireland she lost her bearings and drove into Bannow Bay. An attempt was made to put about, but the ship missed stays and was driven by the south-south-west gate and strong tide close to the South Keeragh Island.

Or the Partial Re-uniting of a Medal Group

by Jonathan Maguire

Patrick Scott and the story of his three medals have had an interesting and chequered past. “It can now be told for the first time” as they say, well not fully, as his Turkish Crimea medal is still at large - do you have it? It is almost certainly named as his Queen’s Crimea is officially impressed.

by Brendan Farrelly

The fallen heroes of the infamous Niemba ambush in the Congo were finally honoured when Defence Minister Michael Smith presented the newly struck Military Star, An Realt Mileata, to relatives of Irish soldiers killed overseas in hostile circumstances. 

Proud relatives wept openly as the minister handed out a total of 36 of the medals, which have become the highest military honour, at a moving ceremony at Collins Barracks. Soldiers killed on duty with the UN in regions including the Congo and Lebanon were honoured. 

by J. Morton

Nobody likes paying taxes - especially if the tax is on one’s own home. Recently in the Irish Republic a property tax on private dwellings caused considerable resentment and led to public agitation to have it removed. With a general election in the offing the Government, deferring to political expediency, abolished it.

However taxes on homes are nothing new. Nearly one hundred years ago, faceless bureaucrats in London decided to impose a tax on the huts of the natives in Sierra Leone, then a British protectorate on the west coast of Africa, with inevitable results. Protests against the tax soon began, and before long developed into armed rebellion as tribe after tribe became involved. When the powerful Mende tribe rebelled in April 1898, the situation became critical. Europeans, as well as blacks who had adopted a European lifestyle, were murdered, their property destroyed or plundered and the entire country was in danger of falling into anarchy.