Ireland’s history: Never black and white, Kilkenny visit to Ypres hears

A group from the Kilkenny Great War Memorial Committee have travelled to the Belgian city of Ypres/ Leper.

Here they participated in the Armistice Day ceremony at the Menin Gate, laying down a wreath in memory of all those from County Kilkenny who died during World War I.

The group visited the grave of the youngest Kilkenny soldier who died in combat. From Thomastown, Edward Aylward was only 17 years old.

He had a very short life, filled with tragedy. Orphaned at a year and four months, his family was split up between relatives. Edward spent his youth living with various family members, including his grand uncle Canon Raftice.

At the age of 14, he left school in Thomastown and enlisted in the British Army, ending up in Flanders where he was killed. Today, he rests in Ypres Reservoir Cemetery.

The group visited many other sites and memorials including, the Irish memorial at Frenzberg Ridge, and the recently unveiled Brothers in Arms Memorial, which remembers the Australian Hunter Brothers.

During roadworks some remains were found and the bodies of those Australian soldiers were the first to be identified using DNA after an appeal for relatives was broadcast on Australian radio. The memorial now stands as a visual testament to the very moving story of a brother’s love and loss.

The group later travelled to the Ploegsteert Memorial which holds the name of a committee member’s relative and sung a few songs in his honour, with a local man joining in.

Another reason for the visit to Ypres was to join with a Kilkennyman now living in Belgium, Patrick Foley, who opened an Irish Bar in Ypres. The red ribbon was cut by the Irish Ambassador to Belgium HE Kevin Conmy and the Mayor of Ypres and member of the Flemish Parliament, Emmily Talpe. READ MORE - WHAT'S ON IN KILKENNY

The Kilkenny Great War Memorial Committee had been working with Mary’s Irish Bar to help with a memorial display of almost 700 whiskey bottles. These carry the names of the over 1,200 men from the Island of Ireland, North and South who died in the Battle of Passchendaele on August 16, 1917.

It was an incredible experience to see all those named who died in the third Battle of Ypres. Also on display there is a life-sized Belgian Draft horse that represents all the animals that died in World War I.

There are many other war time photos and displays in the bar, where there are two other different seating areas all designed to a very high standard.

“Mary’s Ieper is named after my mother Mary Walsh and I look forward to giving a special welcome to the people of Kilkenny and equally to all those from the Island of Ireland,” says Patrick Foley.

It’s a profound experience to visit Ieper with all its Irish and especially Kilkenny connections. Of the over 55,000 names on the Menin Gate, there are 83 Kilkenny men remembered on the memorial, and before the war the local Benedictine Order of nuns was led by Abbess Butler who was from Kilkenny. During WWI the order relocated to Kylemore Abbey.

Mr Foley said during his research for the various memorials created with the help of the Kilkenny Great War Memorial, he was shocked at the scale of sacrifice that Ireland’s soldiers made. Over 200,000 Irishmen served in World War I and over 40,000 casualties.

Mr Foley can now see the complexities of Ireland’s relationship to the Great War.

“My mother’s uncle Isaac fought in Ieper and meanwhile his brother Michael fought in the Four Courts in the Easter Rising,” he says.

This was a fairly common occurrence, leading to diverse experiences and deep family impacts across both conflicts. Many soldiers returning from the war were branded traitors. Mr Foley thinks if anyone takes the time to inform themselves of the situation in Ireland in the years 1914/15, they would understand why so many ordinary people volunteered to fight. He hopes the movement to recognise the sacrifices of Irish people in the Great War continues to gain pace and is taught in schools with pride not like in his schooldays, when it was skipped over.

The most sobering place the group visited was Tyne Cot Cemetery, the largest Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in the world and it contains CWGC Tyne Cot Cemetery is an impressive yet understated haven of tranquillity that extends through the former battle landscape.

With its 11,956 graves, it is one of the largest Commonwealth cemeteries in the world and it is a silent witness to the bloody Battle of Passchendaele.

During the British offensive of 1917, almost 600,000 victims fell in 100 days for a territorial gain of only eight kilometres.
Tyne Cot was originally a German defence position on the first line in Flanders. In October 1917, the Australian troops established an aid station there that soon grew into a small cemetery with 340 graves for the soldiers who had succumbed to their injuries on the spot.

After the war – between 1919 and 1921 – the British ‘Exhumation Companies’ collected 12,000 dead from the surrounding battlefields. Of these, only 3,800 bodies could be identified.

The wall behind the cemetery contains the names of 35,000 soldiers with no known grave. They include British, Irish and New Zealanders who perished in the region after August 16, 1917. The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker and inaugurated in 1927.

Many tens and even hundreds of thousands of visitors come each year to pay their respects to the men – some still only boys – who lost their lives in the surrounding battlefields. A visit leaves no one unmoved.

If anyone needs any help to organise a trip to visit a grave or a memorial of a relative, then the Kilkenny Great War Memorial Committee would offer advice on where to visit and give contacts for tour guide and transport. Please email Kilkennywarmemorial@gmail.com.

Kilkenny Great War Memorial Committee would like to thank David Whithorn for his great work in researching the names for the display in Mary's Irish Bar, Ypres.

- Kilkenny Great War Memorial Committee