by Joe Power
The members of Ennis Lawn Tennis Club were also active in fundraising for prisoners of war. Mrs Cullinan of Bindon Street, Ennis, received a letter from Pte R. McKenna, from a prison in Westphalia: ‘I am very pleased to say that I received your parcel quite safe and in good condition, and I wish to say I thank you very sincerely for your kindness in sending such useful articles. Trusting in God that I will be able to thank you personally some day’. Letters were also received from other prisoners, including Bombardier H. Walton, L-Cpl Hegarty and Pte Jack Cronin, in Limburg; L-Cpl H. Yeoman in Westphalia, and Pte O. Withers in Hanover. The parcels were organised by Mrs Gower, ‘who took a deep personal interest in the Munsters’.
Woodbine cigarette packet.
(Courtesy of John Power)
Mrs Gelston, of Stamer Park, Ennis, wife of the Chief Inspector of the RIC, along with Mrs Cullinan of Bindon Street, Ennis also organised a jumble sale in Ennis, which raised £12 10s. This money was forwarded to Lady Hamilton for the 7th Royal Munster Fusiliers and the Connaught Rangers at the Dardanelles.
Mrs F.N. Studdert wrote to the paper expressing thanks to all those who subscribed to the Prisoners of War collection at the County Clare Agricultural Show held on 15 August. She said that she had received 243 letters and postcards from Royal Munster Fusiliers prisoners, expressing their gratitude to the people of Clare. ‘Many of them were pathetic in their inability to express their feelings of gratitude and many of them wrote that the people at home had no idea how much these parcels meant to them.’
Another source of comfort for the prisoners was the Clare Needlework Guild. Mrs G. de Laval Willis, honorary secretary, acknowledged the receipt of £5 from Mrs F.N. Studdert, part of the proceeds of a raffle; also thirty-five pairs of socks; £1 from Col Tottenham, Mountcallan, and shirts and socks from Mrs Maunsell, The Island, Clare Castle.
It seems that all of these fundraising committees were run by members of the Protestant community. However, in December, Mrs Roughan and the Ennis Ladies Auxiliary of the AOH organised a concert in the Picture Palace (Town Hall), Ennis, courtesy of the H&M Cinema Co., in aid of the County Clare Prisoners of War in Germany, for which a ‘very handsome sum was realised’. Besides songs from various local singers, some cinematic views were shown, including scenes from Egypt and ‘topical films’. A ‘capital’ war picture, For the Empire, was then shown, as well as other pictures. This was the only instance noted in the newspapers, where a collection was organised by the Catholic lady auxiliaries of the AOH for war relief.
Besides these local fundraising committees for the prisoners, a County Clare Prisoners of War Aid Fund Committee was established during the year with the Hon. Mrs Blood as president, Revd T. Abrahall, the Rectory, Ennis as honorary treasurer, Mrs F.N. Studdert as honorary secretary. Other members of the committee included Mrs Marcus Keane; Mrs MacDonnell; Mrs Arthur Greene; Mrs G. de L. Willis; Mrs Moynihan; Miss Parkinson; V. Revd Canon O’Dea, Administrator of Ennis; Sir Michael O’Loghlen, HML for County Clare; Col Tottenham; J.F. Gelston, Chief Inspector; and F.N. Studdert. Apart from Sir Michael O’Loghlen and Canon O’Dea, who were Catholics, it would seem that all the others were Protestants.
The County Clare Committee published a list of fifty prisoners from Clare in their December appeal for funds. Forty-two of them were from the Munster Regiment; three from the Royal Irish Regiment; two each from the Leinster Regiment and the Royal Dublin Fusiliers; and one each from the Connaught Rangers, the Gordon Highlanders, the South Lancashire Regiment, the King’s Own Royal Lancashire, and the Royal Army Medical Corps.30
The Sinking of the Lusitania
Early in the year, as part of their war campaign, the German authorities had issued a general warning that all shipping entering UK waters was at risk of being attacked. They would not guarantee that even neutral or civilian ships would be safe from attack by submarines:
Travellers intending to embark on the Atlantic voyage are reminded that a state of war exists between Germany and her allies and Great Britain and her allies; that the zone of war includes the waters adjacent to the British Isles; that in accordance with formal notice given by the German Imperial Government, vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, or any of her allies, are liable to destruction in these waters and that travellers sailing in the war zone on the ships of Great Britain, or her allies, do so at their own risk.
Imperial German Embassy
Washington DC, 22 April 1915
Despite the warning, many people did not take that threat seriously, never imagining that the Germans would attack a passenger ship sailing between New York and Liverpool. However, that complacency was soon shattered. On 7 May the transatlantic liner Lusitania was nearing the end of its journey from New York to Liverpool. The ship was about 10 miles away from Queenstown (now Cobh), when she was hit by two torpedoes fired from a German submarine U20, and sank within eighteen minutes, with massive loss of life. The shock of this sinking was almost as sensational as the sinking of the Titanic a few years earlier. It brought the horror and the danger of war closer to home. A few days after the sinking of the Lusitania there were several reported sightings of submarines off the coast of Clare in places such as Kilcredane Bay.
There were 1,257 passengers and 702 crew-members aboard the Lusitania, which regularly plied between New York and Liverpool. In fact she was on her 202nd Atlantic crossing. One thousand one hundred and ninety eight people perished in that indiscriminate attack by the German submarine, of whom forty-nine were Irish people, while only 761 were saved. The majority of the victims were buried in Ireland. Incidentally, bodies of Lusitania victims were washed up on the Clare coast in late July at places such as Loop Head, Liscannor, Doonbeg and Baltard.
There were at least two Clare victims of that appalling tragedy. Dr Joseph Garry, aged 25, from Shanahea, Kildysart, had recently qualified and was working aboard the Lusitania as an assistant surgeon. He was the son of Patrick Garry, Esq., a Justice of the Peace, and a member of Clare County Council, and Mary Garry. The second victim was 20-year-old Michael Galvin of Derryshane, Kilmurry McMahon. He had spent a few years in New York and was returning home to Clare. His body was never found.
Apparently, Dr Garry had been working for some time on the ship and had intended to leave after this last voyage. He was going to visit his family and then join the Royal Army Medical Corps, to assist in the typhus epidemic in Serbia. His body was never recovered either. The sinking of the Lusitania helped to turn public opinion in Ireland against Germany and was widely used for propaganda purposes.
One Clare woman, Miss Jane Hogan, from Derreen, Mullagh, Miltown Malbay, was fortunate to survive the sinking. She had been twenty years in America and was returning home. When the ship was hit a gentleman put a lifebelt on her and she fell into the sea. She spent about five hours in the cold water before being rescued and brought to the hospital in Queenstown. While in the water she was badly bruised, being hit by flotsam in the water. She witnessed six of her female comrades clinging to each other before they were drowned. Though she lost all of her belongings, she was lucky that all her money had been stitched into her corset. ‘How good Almighty God has been to me, when I consider how all my comrades were lost’, she said.31
Propaganda poster, 1915. (Courtesy of southdublinlibraries.ie)
The Gallipoli Campaign: ‘Heroism and Slaughter’
In an attempt to end the stalemate on the Western Front and to defeat the Germans and their Turkish allies, the British began a new campaign in Gallipoli, Turkey, to capture the Dardanelles Straits and supply Russia from the Mediterranean Sea. This campaign turned out to be a military disaster for the British Army, with high levels of mortality. Thousands of Irish soldiers from regiments such as the Munster Fusiliers and Dublin Fusiliers were killed, among them many soldiers from Clare. Some of their stories and experiences were recorded through letters sent home.
News about the war was heavily censored in the media, and the War Office tried to ensure that negative reports should n
ot be published, which might discourage recruitment or might lower the morale of the people at home. Some letters from the front line were published, but these were usually carefully filtered to show the gallantry, the courage, the bravery and the heroism of the fighting Irish regiments, and the barbarity of the enemy, whether Germans or Turks.
Nevertheless, despite the censorship, glorification, and propaganda, these letters give us some idea of the horrors of war. The following letter was written by an Ennis man, Drummer Hassett of the Royal Munster Fusiliers, describing his experience in the Dardanelles, and was published in the Saturday Record. There is a strong propagandist tone in the letter:
Publish what I send you about a scrap which some of the Munsters have had. It was printed here in one of the papers in Malta, being sent from the battlefield. The battalion have done their duty, and also the Dublin Fusiliers. We landed together and we were the first two Irish regiments to land at Seddul Bahr – the 1st Battalion Munsters and the 1st Royal Dublin Fusiliers. We cleared the way with the English regiments behind us. We lost heavily, both regiments, but we captured the Turkish positions at the point of the bayonet. It was splendid to see them charging that night, every man with a brave dash in him. I did not take any part in the attack that night, owing to getting wounded the very first day before I landed; but I must say the two Irish regiments were put in the very hottest part of the landing, but every man did his duty, as every Irishman does when put to the test. Myself and my brother are wounded. He is gone to England and I am here in Malta, but I am going back again to get a piece of my own back from the Turk. I belong, as you know to Ennis.
The excerpt the private sends from the Maltese paper is as follows:
A very stirring tale is related of a most heroic fight between a handful of Munsters – there were 19 of them all told – and a company of Turks. The Munsters were watching a bombardment by one of the warships, when they were suddenly surprised by the Turks in the rear. They saw that the odds against them were tremendous, but they were determined to put up a good fight. They fought like demons, using the bayonet with great effect directly any Turk came near them, and very often charging with the bayonet and firing at the same time. In this way they kept the Turks at bay until assistance came, when it was found that no less than 70 Turks had been killed. The number of wounded was not known. The Munsters lost 11 men killed and four wounded.32
Another Ennis soldier, Cpl M. Murphy of the 1st Battalion Royal Munster Fusiliers, also wrote about his experience of war in the Dardanelles in a letter to a friend in Ennis, which was also published in the local press. This letter gives a graphic account of the landing and the sufferings and terrible conditions endured by the Munsters in Gallipoli. The letter ended with an admonitory tone to the ‘slackers’ of Ennis to do their duty and enlist. The newspaper article had subtitles such as ENNIS MEN WHO DID THEIR DUTY, and AN APPEAL TO ‘SLACKERS’ AT HOME:
My dear old chum, I hope this scribble will find you and father and mother and all at home in the best of health. As you will see by the address I am in hospital here. I contracted a disease in the … Dardanelles, which went very nearly having me, but thank God, I am over the worst of it now, but it will take me a long time yet, before I am fit, as there are not 16 ozs of flesh on my body and I am still very weak. I am now allowed out of bed for two hours in the evening and taken on a verandah on a deck chair by the nurses, where I can look down on the blue Mediterranean Sea. The nurses here are very nice, they are all ladies out of England who volunteered to nurse their soldiers, of whom they are very proud.
We landed at Gallipoli on the 15th April on a Sunday morning, which I will never forget, it was terrible. The Munsters and Dubliners were the first to land and we were met by a terrible fire from the shore and from a fort called Seddal Bahr. We lost heavily going ashore and it was one man out of every two who was lucky to get ashore without getting a hit. It was a terrible sight to see your chums struggling in the water after being hit. I was one of the lucky ones to get ashore without getting a scratch … I may say I was one of the first twenty men to land on that uninviting shore. The Dublins were just as badly off as we were, but we stuck to that shore all day and many acts of bravery were done by our men, which if it were seen, would gain many a man a VC. It was often given for less. There were several men saved from the sea badly wounded, who would never have got ashore.
We stuck to that shore all day – only a handful of us compared to the enemy. There was a terrible fire kept up from our gallant navy. All that day we were under fire from maxims, rifles and pom poms. And all that night we held it against the Turks and Germans, who made several attempts to drive us into the sea. But they had to meet the Irishmen, the cream of the British army, and they found out to their cost, that we had come to stay. Next morning, when we saw our dead and wounded, it made us only more determined to avenge them, and when the order was given, to fix bayonets and advance, it was done with a cheer. We advanced up on a village and met the Turks, but they could not face our bayonets. So, after several charges – but at a terrible loss – we took the village and fort and trenches and several prisoners. The Turks lost heavily that morning, but we had got a better footing. Still, there were some snipers concealed in the village, who were picking off our fellows. It was while surrounding the houses with six more that I got hit. I got a bullet through the shoulder, which put me out of action for the day. It is not painful when you get hit first – it is afterwards you feel it. I went on board a hospital ship where I was dressed and taken care of.
When I was fit I rejoined my comrades in the trenches, they were two miles from the shore, but there was a good many of the old faces gone. Still, those left were very cheerful. I was in the firing line for nearly three months and was in some very tight corners, but someone’s prayers were heard as I had some very narrow escapes. I fought alongside several Ennis men, a good many of whom went to await the Roll of Honour, but they died fighting and got a soldier’s grave which is not forgotten by their more fortunate comrades. We are very well looked after in the line of food, as we get fresh bread every day and fresh meat. When we come back from the firing line for a few days rest, we get an opportunity of having a swim in the sea, which is very refreshing after being in the trenches without a wash or a shave for a week. We get shelled every day, but the Turks very seldom do much damage.
I hope I will be spared to visit my old town again and to see all the comrades of my youth, when I will be able to give a good account of my experiences on active service. I got the old ‘Record’ from home this morning and was delighted to see by it that they held a big recruiting meeting in Ennis, where I am sure there are some ‘slackers’ yet. It is about time these fellows woke up and did their bit and not let the enemy on the fair shores of Erin. Let them come out here and meet and beat them in their own land. These are the fellows who will do all the shooting when the war is over and not the men who went through it and helped the nation to victory’.33
Capt. Poole Hickman
A third, and indeed the most comprehensive and most realistic account of the campaign in Gallipoli was given by Capt. H.Poole Hickman, who was killed the day after he wrote the account. He described the campaign between 6 and 14 August 1915. He was in command of D Company of the 7th Royal Dublin Fusiliers. He was tragically killed on 15 August 1915. He described how they landed and advanced from Suvla Bay as follows:
We left Mitylene at 2 pm on Friday 6th of August and arrived here at 4 am on Saturday morning. We carried our rations with us – a sandwich for the voyage and two days iron rations consisting of a tin of bully beef, tea, sugar, biscuits and Oxo tablets. From 2 o’clock in the morning onwards we could see the flashing of the big guns and hear the rattle of musketry, the first indications to us that we were within the war zone. Our first two boats, consisting of A and C companies, started landing at 5.30 am, but did not get ashore without mishap, as a shrapnel struck the boat, killing one man and wounding eleven. Among the wounded was one of our officers Second Lieut
. Harvey. We landed a short while later, but escaped without being hit, and then around 8 am we commenced a general advance. It was allotted to us and to another Irish regiment to take a hill about three and a half miles from where we landed. We had not advanced 100 yards when we were greeted with a perfect hail of shrapnel, and shrapnel is not a pleasant thing. You hear a whistle through the air, then a burst and everything within a space of 200 yards by 100 yards from where the shrapnel burst is liable to be hit. The wounds inflicted are dreadful, deep, big, irregular gashes, faces battered out of recognition, limbs torn away.
We got some protection under cover of a hill and steadily continued our advance in a line parallel to the enemy’s position. We had to change direction and advance in a direct line on a position on a small neck of land, and the crossing of this neck was awe-inspiring, but ghastly. The enemy guns had got the range to a yard and a tornado of high explosives and shrapnel swept the place. Your only chance was to start immediately after a burst and run as fast as you could across the place as there was some cover at the other side. We lost heavily at this particular place and from then on commenced the serious business. The enemy were strongly entrenched on a line of hills about two miles from the neck of land. The right of the attack had to get over a bare sandy sweep, but there was some cover for the left. The heat was intense and the going very heavy. We advanced in long lines with two paces between each man and about eight such lines altogether at the start. Of course, by the time we got to the hill, the supports and reserves had caught up with the firing line. Meanwhile, we presented an open target to the enemy, but though we advanced through a regular hail of bullets and shrapnel, our casualties were not heavy. Maj. Harrison was in charge of the first line and was marvellously good. About 3 o’clock in the afternoon we were within 600 yards of the hill, which was fairly high, a network of trenches and sides covered with furze and thorny scrub, which afforded cover from view. When we got to the foot of the hill A and D Companies led by Maj. Anderson, were in the first line, about a platoon of each, with some Inniskillings and a few stragglers.
