Barnes Family Tree

World War I

I’m a little ashamed to admit that during my school years, I learned a few facts about WWI but I never had any interest in the detail & sadly forgot all that I learned once the relevant test/exam was over.  Although I knew Irish men fought with the British Army, I genuinely had no idea of the extent of their numbers. I somehow imagined that there were only a handful of men that volunteered & I thought it would be difficult to research their role. What a shock I got! It seems that the role of the Irish soldier disappeared from history in the new independent Irish State because of the events of the Easter Rising in 1916, the partition of Ireland in 1922 & the civil war that followed. I hope we are turning a corner & finally recognising their role.

There is no exact figure but it is thought that about 210,000 Irish men volunteered to fight with the Brits & of that number 49,400 men lost their lives. And their role was immense - the 1^st shot fired by the British Army was fired by the Irish Royal Dragoons in 1914. Although each division lost significant numbers of men, one of the most shocking battles occurred in Passchendaele (Belgium) when 2 Irish Divisions, the 36^th from Ulster & 16^th from southern Ireland fought side-by-side & lost approximately 8000 men in just 3 days. It is near here that the Ireland Peace Tower was built & unveiled in 1998 by President Mary McAleese, Queen Elizabeth II & King Albert II of Belgium. I might be biased but I believe this was the most tranquil & beautiful place I had ever visited.

The tower was built in the traditional style of an Irish round tower & is partially built with stone from a former British Army barracks in Tipperary & from stone from a work-house in Mullingar. It was built by people from the north & south of Ireland & includes a peace pledge written by the Nationalists & Unionists from Ulster. The design allows the sun to illuminate the chamber of the tower each year at 11am on 11^th November, the anniversary of the armistice that ended the war & a commemorative ceremony is held yearly there, on that date, in conjunction with similar ceremonies at the nearby Menin Gate in Ypres.

Included in the garden are plaques with letters from some of the soldiers & a very poignant poem written by a Dublin Fusilier:

So here, while the mad guns curse overhead,

And tired men sigh, with mud for couch and floor,

Know that we fools, now with the foolish dead,

Died not for Flag, nor King, nor Emperor,

But for a dream born in a herdsman’s shed,

And for the sacred scripture of the poor.

Since my visit there, the song ‘Green Fields of France/Willie McBride’ has taken on a whole new meaning.

I was very disappointed to find that none of the war records of Ned, John or Thomas survived the bombing of the British War Ministry by the German in WWII. It’s thought that only about 40% did survive & the National Archives in Britain are doing a wonderful job trying to catalogue these & make them available to the public. I still hold out hope that ‘something’ might turn-up. But at the same time I’m very grateful that at least Thomas & John have graves.

When Ger, my husband, & I travelled to Ypres, I was so shocked to learn that almost 55,000 men were never found or their bodies identified. I was so overwhelmed with the loss of life in this area, & cried for some time after attending the nightly ceremony held at Menin Gate. This ceremony is held by the citizens of Ypres in gratitude to the men of the British Army that gave their lives for Belgian freedom. Buglers from the local fire brigade sound the ‘Last Post’ & the crowd recite the words ‘We will never forget’.

Ypres is in the heart of Flanders & it is a very pretty town with lots of shopping including bars, restaurants & the odd tacky souvenir shop. And of course, lots of yummy Belgian chocolate shops. The fields surrounding Ypres are full of red poppies, which is why they are worn on Remembrance Day, each November.