At a meeting of Killarney Town Council, Co. Kerry, on Monday July 5th 2010, a leather bound book containing over 300 names of those from Killarney and the surrounding area who fought in the First World War, was presented to the town during which the town council meeting was informed that of 308 young soldiers listed, 192 had died with the majority of them killed at Gallipoli and others at the Somme It is anticipated that the list will grow over time as the result of on-going research as it is expected that more Killarney people will be uncovered. Relatives of the 126 who survived said that many retuned home injured and carried emotional and other scars.
Noel Grimes, chairman of the war memorial committee, in presenting the book to Donal Grady, newly elected Mayor said that future generation must know that Killarney was not just all about tourism and that there was another part of the town that must not be forgotten, namely its people.
The project got under way following a visit on September 2009 to Killarney by President Mary McAleese to unveil the Killarney Great War Memorial alongside the Munster Fusiliers monument, which generations of Kerry men enlisted in, to all those who had died and who had recently remained unspoken about publicly.
