Remembrance Sunday last commemorated the dead of the Great War (1914-18), and of the WWII (1939-45) together with other conflicts since then – including Korea, Malaya, Cyprus, The Falklands, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan. The sad fact is that there has only been two years since World War II that a UK service person has not lost his/her life in action.
Over a decade ago as Chaplain to the Northern Ireland area of the Royal British Legion, I co-led with an Irish Defence Forces’ RC Chaplain the first North-South ex-services act of remembrance at the National War Memorial at Islandbridge in human memory. Former members of both the Irish and UK services were in attendance. It is a memory I cherish.
Basically there is a respect amongst service and ex-service people for each other which can outstrip by far the civilian populations. There is a commonality which anyone who has not served cannot understand fully.
I took part in this year’s Remembrance Day service at Macosquin parish in Derry diocese, where after the service the children placed crosses with poppies on each ex-service grave including that of a young parishioner who was killed last year in Afghhanistan serving with the Royal Irish and who was buried with full honours at Remembrance. In such circumstances, and with a nephew currently in Kandahar, the contribution still being paid for peace by people from throughout this island was in my thoughts. The priority given to Remembrance by the newly installed President of Ireland is most welcome, as was that of several of his predecessors.
Last Sunday I was fully aware that another 440 Irish Defence Force troops have just deployed to Lebanon. The members of the 105th Battalion are taking over duties currently being carried out by the 104th Battalion, which has been serving there as part of the UN-backed operation since June.
The men and women deploying are primarily from the 1st Southern Brigade (Munster area). They have been in training for the past three months, culminating in a two week Mission Readiness Exercise in the Glen of Imaal. This exercise put commanders and soldiers through a demanding series of scenarios based on the current situation in Lebanon and potential threats that may be encountered in the mission area.
Of the 440 travelling troops, 116 personnel are on their first tour of duty abroad.
Irish officers were first deployed to Lebanon as observers in 1958. And in 1978, the first Irish Battalion departed for the Middle East as part of the United Nations Interim Force (UNIFIL). Since then, 47 Irish troops have lose their lives while peacekeeping. Each one of them is precious and irreplaceable to their loved ones.
The statistics of those who died and served in the First World War from Ireland as a whole are somewhat daunting. The names of tens of thousands are recorded in The Books of the Dead at Islandbridge.
Less well-known is the record of some 5,000 Irishmen from the Republic who died serving with the British Army in the WWII, and there were rather more from the South than from the North. Roughly 53,000 volunteers served from the Republic and roughly 52,000 from Northern Ireland. With air force, merchant marine, and naval losses, independent Ireland’s wartime death-toll alone might be in the region of 4,000.
Of the 478 Irish-born British army officers killed, 345 (72 per cent) came from the South. four Irish brigadiers were killed; all southerners. 33 Irish lieutenant-colonels were killed; only three from the north. Eight southerner-Irish chaplains were killed, two Northern. Fifty southerners died in the Royal Army Medical Corps, and 28 from the North. In the Intelligence Corps, one northern death, seven southern, 38 female southern volunteers died, 15 from the North. One northerner – a Roman Catholic – won the Victoria Cross, as did five, southern, Irish-born Roman Catholics.
It was good to see a major on-going thawing of the issue of remembrance in both jurisdictions in Ireland. One thing for certain: we are the guests and beneficiaries of those who served and those who died for basic human freedoms – such as that to exercise our democratic rights, to assemble together for worship and to enjoy freedom of speech. Such freedoms and responsibilities extract an ongoing high price to secure and to share with others in a world which is increasingly averse to them.
Houston McKelvey