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THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES has digitised and released copies of more than 9,000 wills belonging to Irish soldiers who fought for the British Army in World War I.
Although about 35,000 Irish men died in action, only 9,000 wills have survived. These are the only official documents held in the National Archives which directly concern the soldiers of World War I. There are plans for the English and Scottish equivalents to be put online shortly but the Irish project is the first to be completed.
Archivist Hazel Menton told TheJournal.ie that the project took four years and involved the individual scanning of each envelope and piece of paper.
The British Army provided several alternative ways of making a will, including forms in their service book and separate pre-printed forms. Soldiers were encouraged to make wills because it simplified the settling of their affairs after their deaths.
Included in the collection are 29 wills from soldiers who died in the South African war of 1899-1902. These are quite different from the wills of soldiers of World War I as many are accompanied by letters to their families and loved ones.
The archivists describe them as “newsy, informative missives” from the soldier to his mother, girlfriend, sister or brother that give an insight into the lives of the men fighting in South Africa, their family, home life and concerns.
Most of the soldiers were very young and did not have wives or children, and in many cases the beneficiary was their mother or father, siblings or the friends serving with them.
The poignant moments captured in the letters that have survived give us unprecedented access into the hearts and minds of Irish soldiers who fought during the two wars. The whole collection can be perused here.
On 23 November 1899, Patrick Campion wrote to his mother to wish her a ‘Happy Xmas’.
…do not fight on Sunday, they might not fight on Xmas day…
He died less than a month later, on 15 December 1899.
Joseph Robinson died in South Africa on 23 September 1901. In his emotional October 1899 letters to his sweetheart Susan in Virginia, Cavan, he asks her to stay faithful and not to marry until he returns.
He was also fond of marking his pages with x’s (or kisses).
Jack Madden wrote numerous letters to a Biddy Whelan of 24 Castle Street, Bray before his death on 27 October 1914. In one note, he showed his Irish side by telling his love he missed his cup of tea.
Others are more serious as he talks about orders and feeling “much happier” for taking her advice and going to his duty. It is clear from one of his notes that his mother had died and he was not coping with the news.
The page that marks him calling Biddy his “heir” is denoted with an X.
In the next page, he asks her not to think bad of him and that she may as well have the money he earns. He also returned two pawn tickets and orders to “tell the man I am gone to the front and I would not like to lose it”.
In the 12-page run-on letter, he enclosed photos and asked Biddy to show them to his father and tell him to “keep the heart up”. “We will all meet again I hope,” he added.
Biddy I do miss you fighting with me now. No matter we will fight again please god. Biddy don’t forget about what I say about the letter sa soon as you read this don’t forget forget me.
World War I soldier Michael Egan of the Irish Guards 1st Battalion asked his sister to pray for him every day until she heard of his death. “For I am going to the front. I am leaving London the morning I am going to France…”
The handwriting changes on page two and the soldier explains he had “his chum” write the first page.
He was killed in action on 1 November 1914.
Private James O’Connell, who died on 15 August 1915, wrote to his mother on 20 April of the same year.
I have a nice time of it here nothing dont trouble me and very fond of the army. It would be a lot better for me that I listed years a go if I come home safe…
The ‘will’ part of the letter was then underlined.
James Purvis gives an insight the process of drawing up wills.
Dear Mother we have got everything ready we have got our field badges sewed into our coats and we have got our small book and the little disks for going round your neck it is about the size of a penny with you…And in the small book there is a place for making your will so I am making mine out for to leave to you so you can divide it the way you think fit if anything happens to me you would have all the money and clothing that belongs to me.
Purvis, who was part of B Company of the 6th Battalion, Royal Irish Fusiliers, also described the women up in Dublin. He claimed they would miss his company when they left because they feed and clothe them.
However, most of the correspondence from World War I was more simple, and often, was just a form filled in by soldiers. This will for James Delaney was simply signed with ‘his mark’ X.
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So who lied to the Irish people this time?
EU?
IMF?
NAMA?
Irish Government?
All of the above?
The Illuminati
When are the decision makers going to realize that IBRC was the biggest rip off of all times,. Just look at what they did with Quinn-wasted billions of euros.
So a late night deal done that nobody really understands has f’d up the country again. Enough is enough, we need an election now not in 3 years, Now
Raped and pillaged that’s how I feel….no means no
Yeah I feel like I’ve been economically rohypnoled
An election will make no difference. We have two large and broadly similar conservative parties, either of which is always in government, usually along with one smaller party. Every time, they prioritise themselves and their friends (and now also Europe) and shaft the state and the ordinary people who elected them. The smaller party takes most of the flak for not standing up for their principles (we expect that from the big party to which we give most of the power but expect more from the smaller one) and is decimated at the polls next time round. We then vote in the other conservative party and whichever small party which hasn’t had a go for a while, and the whole sorry process begins again. What we need is a new and genuinely different party. But we don’t have it because we as an electorate haven’t created a market for it. What have we created a market for? Luke Ming Flanagan and Mick Wallace. No matter what happens, we’ll get the government we deserve.
Time for a national government , none of these people know what they are doing, we need the brightest and best minds in the country to get us out of the mire we are stuck in
Well said Mark.
Having election after election isn’t going to do anything other than cost the taxpayer more money.
If we’re to go by opinion polls, FG will be in the next government, probably in a coalition with FF or Labour. That’s what the people want. That’s democracy.
No, not an election to elect the same elite establishment figures, we need a revolution
We Irish are as thick as they come, voting in the same gombeens time and time again.
Look at FF rising in popularity again FFS !!!!
Politics in Ireland is like playing musical chairs with the same ugly old farts.
We need someone new. Fair play to direct democracy Ireland who are at least putting their hand up and giving us something DIFFERENT.
I wish David McWilliams would come out from behind his keyboard and make a difference.
Pat Byrne the founder of CityJet is another who is prepared to get involved and has publicily stated so.
We need someone to start this new group/party otherwise we will just keep giving out and calling for a revolution through our smartphones !!
Colin
Careful lad! That’s called sedition and criminal laws extensively cover the subject.
You are correct, however, i was careful to say what I think was needed (subjective view point), which would be a thought crime in Orwell’s 1984, but did not actually call for one
Sedition is the stirring up of rebellion against the government in power. Treason is the violation of allegiance to one’s sovereign or state, giving aid to enemies, or levying war against one’s state. Sedition is encouraging one’s fellow citizens to rebel against their state, whereas treason is actually betraying one’s country by aiding and abetting another state.
The above are not my words but I think most will agree our government have committed treason and people need to rebel.
TD Stephen Donnelly maintains that IBRC’s midnight debt “deal” will cost us €55 Billion over it’s 40-50 year term.
So we’re looking at €71 Billion for Anglo and Irish Nationwide alone (at the moment).
Isn’t just amazing what vile spawn is created, when your government and criminal bankers get into bed with each other.
100% correct mark such a mess
So true there are so many people that could make such a diiference to our country but they wont be let
Why? Because they dont want them to see country corruption that has went on & is currently happening in this country as we speak
Is this a joke please somebody stop this ridiculous nonsense now enough is enough and where does this all end ?? I can’t describe the anger after reading this
Stop it? It should never have been allowed to begin. The crime of the century, private debt of a gambling elite paid for by you and me and the next two generations. This is FF’s legacy, hope the Irish people are not thick enough to forget that.
Send the bill to cowen and ahern. They caused it and the current shower are making us pay for it…
Sorry folks,not our bill.
Colin
This is much, much deeper than just FF, or FG or any others. It’s an entire system of institutions, supposedly intended to serve the interests of the majority, in a democracy, that, in fact, have come to do no such thing.
All these institutions look after the interests of the top few percent – their senior authorities +are+ the top few percent elites.
By stealth , over decades, the power of the Finance (or ‘FIRE’, Finance, Insurance & Real Estate) sector has come to dominate & corrupt all, whilst greatly & continuously increasing it’s extraction of ‘economic rent’ or ‘tribute’ for no productive purpose whatever. So insidious is all this that it has become ‘normal’.
So, we have another €16 billion of FIRE sector casino losses, again being foisted on ordinary citizens so that the top few percent don’t lose much, if anything. Indeed, most importantly, so that the system which continues to make the top elites richer, even thru’ recessions, is kept in place unchallenged.
And at the same time, because of the economic & euro monetary system design, the ability to earn & pay, of the real economy of citizens – the only actual source of wealth – is being hammered with collective austerity. Which, in the long known ‘fallacy of composition’ principle of MACRO economics, will do nothing but cause stagnation or contraction. Which is precisely the results we are seeing. Growth does +not+ come from the fairies. It comes from increasing aggregate spending – GDP +is+ aggregate spending (including the vital government sector).
Seriously, does anyone need any more proof that the entire system & near all its present incumbents are rotten & not fit for the purpose in representing the majority interests?
And by the way, the ‘crisis’ is only just beginning. Greece is not ‘fixed’ – they only kicked the can past the German elections in September. Its economy still being destroyed not rebuilt, same for Portugal, Spain & Cypress. The Euro currency system is not remotely ‘fixed’.
It is only a matter of time & timing before Ireland goes the same way, if we let it continue.
Beyond all this is the looming economic ‘wall’ that is Peak Oil. Oil is still the energy source upon which our entire civilisation depends. We cannot have, and have never had, ‘growth’ without it’s production increasing year on year, without substituting it on the same scale. Absolutely definitely by 2030, most likely ‘…before 2020…’ (cf Michael Kumhof, IMF Chief Research Economist), world production will go into irreversible decline.
There has never been a sustained global contraction, year on year, of the 4 – 6% that is coming, that authorities have ignored (because they judge they personally will be ok). There is no easy or quick fix now – it’s too late. The next few decades will be nothing like people have ever seen before.
If ever there was a time when we, ordinary citizens, need functioning institutions of democracy that actually +do+ represent our interests, & not just those of the top few, it is +now+.
I was watching an interview with Tony Benn, the former Labour MP last night from Michael Moore’s Sicko!, and he made the very valid point that there are two ways for government to stop democracy working, 1) is to cause fear among the population (á la terror threat levels in the USA) and 2) was to demoralise the voters, to such an extent where they are no longer interested in protest or voting. The latter applies to Ireland. If every single person of voting age in this country actually voted, no government would dare pull off the type of sh*te that’s happened over the last 5 years, but they know only between 30-40% of us will vote, and the core of that percentage vote for FG, FF, Lab, or should I say, a party that will be quite happy to pull your pants down and have their way with you, over and over again. Who wouldn’t be a politician in Ireland, you get away with absolute murder and suffer no consequences, you may very well get rewarded for your incompetence.
Mike, I fully agree with you. Its a broken system, a failed ideology, a myth about markets dictating, a failed neoliberal dream. Some government state interventions/regulation is always required. Call it what you will, socialism for the rich, etc, but we have found out very much to our cost, and indeed the cost of future generations and the concept of market forces is as a certain Mr Goebbels put it, “nothing more than a big lie”.
Where our political establishment come into it, well, we were not asked about taking on the debt of a gambling elite. Is this constitutional? I know in Iceland, the president of the country told the bankers he did not have a mandate to impose such austerity of future generations and told them where to go.
Our politicians, were absolutely complicit on A, lumbering all people living in Ireland, as well as those not yet born, with a massive, unfair, unjust debt that these people were not responsible for.
B, the current shower have continued the charade and a general election will make absolutely not difference because all of the mainstream political establishment are cut from the same cloth, the differences between the parties are merely superficial, nothing more. The are all part of the establishment and believing any of them will rock the status quo is as believable as a turkey voting for Christmas. Something different is required, something radically different
Good comment Mike Hall.
It is also FG/Lab legacy – none of these parties should be in goverment – NOW . They have done enough damage . They are all in bankers hip pockets .
Neo -liberal Economics has failed wherever it went – and the people who introdueced freidmanns ideas Thatcher and Reagan shoulld – if alive – be in jail .
But the worst part is people actully voted for them- ie NL Economics .
Stephen Donnelly tweeted this video about wealth distribution.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPKKQnijnsM&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Very interesting & shocking video…
Get out and protest, the reason they keep doing these things is because we do nothing when they do them. They are getting away with it. Protests in massive numbers will work. We have to do something. Not only is this just blatant corruption it’s destroying lives.
We are…. Sadly
The best description of how our world is dying ( economically) i have ever read…. Please send this description to my email if you dont mind.
Let the IMF pay it then. We’ve paid enough.
What’s Enda Kennys famous saying” we will exit the bailout program by the end of the year!! “. Bullsh1t Enda!!!
You mean we now need another €16 billion and that’s just for the banks again , who are screwing people over their mortgages !!!!!
Let the IMF pay? So you think it’s okay to let hard-pressed taxpayers around the world pay for Ireland’s problems?
The IMF isn’t some machine with its own financial resources detached from everyone else. It is funded by taxpayers around the world, the majority of whom are much poorer than Irish people.
Aib and BOI not actually Irish. So no Irish tax payer money should be given. Wake up folks it’s a scam. Enda and Gilmore gave away more with help of corrupt noonan than any other government in history
The Irish taxpayers paid for the mistakes of the European banks
”What’s Enda Kennys famous saying” we will exit the bailout program by the end of the year!! “. ”
If that is waht he said – only fools would believe it .
yes – the IMF is a machine . It gets money for near zero % and loans it out at 6-7 % . The whole idea is to get Nations in debt – and enforce their Political agenda .
True. It would be interesting to know what proportion of GDP goes to repay the IMF from countries who receive aid from NGOs. Consider how some of these people are suffering and you’ll see how lenient the IMF is.
Banks need to be closed and file for bankruptcy like any other business that runs out of money. Otherwise the Irish tax payer will be paying for them in 30 years.
Kerry how many times has A.I.B been bailed out in the last 30yrs i agree with ya if its a dead duck bury it
So true Kerry !! All the money they stole to bale them out should have been used to set up
New debt free banks !! All the oil and gas finds that’s being ignored is also a jailing offence for all politicians
How will this be “spun”?
Mr Higgins will along any moment
True.
why in all the name thats holy should it be the tax payer pay for the rich,gamblers because thats exactly what they are gamblers they gamble you lose
James, look at the Icelandic example, this is what we should have done, but it would have taken something most Irish politicians and establishment figures and their media cheerleaders lack…..courage….balls!!!
Only the rich can afford to buy a politician.
@Colin have to agree with ya there my friend
What a F@€€in joke.
Even if we got saddled with €200 billion we wont protest because the majority of the people here are scared of the government.
Agreed, the Irish people just cannot seem to act as a collective fighting unit, unless its something as important as a Thierry Henry handball!!
And cue David Higgins to put us all straight on the wonderful job his boss is doing and that its everyone’s else’s fault and that FF Lite are picking up the pieces blah blah.
Lets just burn it down and start again.
Words fail me right now.
This is the same bank that is being sued by its shareholders in the UK but of course in Ireland we will give them whatever they want, Time to stop this financial terrorism attack on Ireland
The evidence is overwhelming. Bankers cannot be trusted to run the banking function. Their eternal quest for the fast buck is in direct conflict with society’s need for a safe place to store money. Every discussion on banking in the conservative media begins with the assumption that the Banks need to preserved as private institutions no matter what the cost. It is this type of blinkered ideology which lost Ireland our economic sovereignty and why the Troika now call the shots.
The retail banking system needs to be nationalised properly in contrast to the criminal socialisation of banking debt which we have suffered since 2008. Banking is as a necessary utility for the proper functioning of the state in the same way as electricity or the water supply. The banking function should be retained for the benefit of the people and not left in the hands of free market capitalism. This would involve a true nationalisation of the banks where the banks are run for the general good of society and not for short term profiteering. Nationalisation would allow the state/people to collectively benefit from the relatively easy profits to be made from the banking utility as well as enforcing proper regulation so that the self destructive pursuit of short term profits at the expense of long term stability is eliminated. The banking institutions could be run as separate entities and measured against each other to preserve competition and maintain efficiency but the controlling stake in each would be held by the state and its citizens.
If other institutions or people choose to engage in investment banking and trade in the riskier instruments of financial capitalism then so be it. But they will do so at their own peril and will not be bailed out with once cent of the citizen’s money if they incur losses in their speculation.
If you really want to do something stop paying these “taxes”. Hit them where it hurts .. I can barely afford my own bills let alone trying to pay for someone else’s. This is not our debt.. Stop or don’t pay these taxes.
Okay..taking my money out of the bank now…
Moral Hazard….the banksters favourite buzz word when dealing with ordinary peoples debts. I presume they will apply it to this 16 billion shortfall and not expect the tax payer to bail them out ever again.
I think it’s Ctrl & F8 on the keyboard in IMF HQ, moral hazard
I.M.F. Insufferable. Miserable. F@#kers.
As long as the government live in cuckoo land and think we all have money trees in our back gardens the will keep sucking us dry . .
Cuckoo land is some crib to these politicians !!!!
I guess Croke Park-3 will follow hot on the heels of Croke Park-2?
Enough is enough. Should I have backed a losing horse in the grand national last saturday it would have been my fault and my loss. These jokers in the banks went mad. They thought it was ok to pay 460 million euro for the Glass Bottle site! At least part of which used to be Ringsend dump or am I wrong!
Now they are once again coming back to haunt us! Their private gambling debts are now ours again. Lest anyone forget AIB bought an insurance company and the taxpayer paid for that mistake as well.
It seems if you are a banker you can gamble with the money and then when you lose the taxpayer will pay.
I say enough!
WTF
Vincent Brown should be interesting tonight.
Problem is Brass Rat that is more talk and nothing else. We need to invite the students from Cyprus at least they managed to get the EU to sit up and take notice of the people.
No more for those shower of thieves, none of them making do, when will they take their heads out of the sand and admit failure, they are hobbling from one crisis to another.
Boy and girl lads and lassies hear ye hear ye did u not see the otehr meeage emitted form the infamour IMF – that mortgage crisis be addressed. REPOSESS AND SEEL HOMES TO GET CASH INTO BANKS.
All cos this bail out ireland govt agreed two terms :
1 That Ireland will comply with eu budget deficitrs nought can be done as refendum passed.
and
2 That ireland also will capitalsie the banks to highest intnl standard and well u see above and IMF answewr.
That capitalisation term/programme included in memo of udnerstnanding signed by Min for Finance and O Rehn and P Honohan in May 11 and one of abnks to be capitalsied was Anglo Irish merged with INBS called IBRC.
Art 29 5 2 of constituton No Intnl Loan agreement binding on this state unless all terms approved by DAIL namely TDs not MINISTERS. BUT THAT MEMO NEVER PUT BEFORE DAIL.
Now same TDS have to VOTE FOR the leg IMF need to get cash for banks – and bill in dail – get on your bikes tnat tell them u wer never asked by yor local td if u would agree with his policty that IRELAND BAIL UT BANKS – and nor did u vote for him to do that and u dont want hom vopte for that new bill intil he start cvalling for that memo to be put on dail floor for rejection or approval.
now im totally lost. Wasn’t that the PLAN so we didn’t have to pay whats due this year so they pushed it on for few years? So now we might need another bailout plus we still need to pay that bill in the future? Im i the only one that’s confuse here?
*PLAN i mean DEAL
This IMF report and the media presentation is setting the stage for the Cyprus model to be applied here.
Very soon there will be articles from elite shills about a possible ‘bail-in’ being absolutely necessary.
Eventually there will be an announcement that regretably they have to confiscate some part of our deposits and savings in our banks.
That is where this is going. The Cyprus model will be applied here.
Most important question hasn’t been asked yet – when’s the next Bank Holiday weekend, so we know the deadline for moving your savings out of the country to a bank where they can’t do a Cyprus on them?
you’ve nothing to worry about if you’ve less than €100k.
You’re in luck Keano, I happen to be the fortunate recipient of the scrap metal rights to the Eiffel tower. But because of the recent economic woes, I find myself in a cash flow situation that stops me capitalising on this great windfall. For a low investment from you to help with the cash flow, I’d be willing to offer 40% of the return on this lucrative contract. Whaddya say?
(I mean, if you’ll buy that line about how your deposits below 100k are safe after Cyprus, you’d buy anything…)
Sigh.:-(. Where is the future in Ireland if we continue to take the hits for this mess. I wish this govt would just dissolve as a major rethink is needed on what is happening. Enough is enough otherwise this country will have no youth to sustain an economic future.It will be a country of old people and sheep.
by the way I have written to all four tds in my constituency telling them that NOW if evet time for Govt Parteis to tackle that unacceptable term that we bail out banks and use that art form dail chamvber backbenchers – sicne EU Co of Ministers not prepaerd to respond to request that national debt be wrteen down.
Tks.
EU/IMF need TD to vote for the reforme of conveyancing act – our turn not to say we need money in the cental exchequer and not prepared ot give any mor to it for bansk and u say tht to the person u elected to look after that fund – TD.
Ride the paddy!
This is what the imf want, keep a nation in debt forever, bleed them dry with nonstop interest on loans, then insist the country sells off natural resources for as little as possible to cover a fraction of the interest which will never be cleared off, not even to mention the main loan principle amount. Ireland will bled dry forever, the straw that breaks the taxpayers back is happening now!
ps pls bear in mind if u dont – noguth to loose and more who do it more cahnce TDs will listen and act. But if u dont and bail out does land and its on card and NO CHANGE – aint TDs who bear – who?
Mary – any chance you would use spell check?
The only reaction I think applicable to this news: http://replygif.net/114
Why is everyone getting their knickers in a twist? This is a ‘downside’ report thst is full of ‘might’, ‘could’, and ‘possibly’. If, on the other hand, the ‘upside’ happens then we’re quids in. When will the Journal do a report on this?
We need the Garda to show the way. I expect Shatter will
Pay them off with some sort of deal. If they were to strike and protest about the cuts it would be a first step and the people of Ireland would support them. Otherwise the people are left to support the politicians who are corrupt as shown recently with lowery and co.
have your say