The gathering in central Dublin on Armistice Day 1924 was the largest since the crowds that attended Home Rule rallies in the city 12 years previously.
Ireland and the world had changed in ways nobody thought possible in 1912. The first World War had been as unexpected as it was brutal. Home Rule was never implemented and was replaced by something which few envisaged at the time – an independent Irish state, albeit one achieved at the price of partition with six counties in the North.
Armistice Day was already a contested event in Ireland. There had been running battles between loyalists and republicans on the streets of Dublin in previous years, but, on this day, less than two years after the establishment of the Irish Free State, there was harmony.
The crowds that descended on the centre of Dublin for Armistice Day 1924 took everyone by surprise, not least the Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) which had no traffic contingency plan in place.
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It anticipated a small crowd that would form up around 11am, observe a two-minute silence and then disperse from whence it had come. Nobody anticipated this. A crowd estimated at 50,000 turned up on a normal working day.
The object that had prompted this national outpouring of grief and remembrance was a large Celtic cross, 13 feet six inches high made of solid granite and weighing three tonnes. It was enclosed by a metal railing measuring 15 feet square. At its base was an inscription in Irish and English. “Do chum glóire Dé agus Onóra na hÉireann” (To the Glory of God and Honour of Ireland). In commemoration of the victories of Guillemont and Ginchy Sept 3rd and 9th 1916 and in memory of those who fell therein and of all the Irishmen who gave their lives in the Great War RIP”.
At 11am the bell at Trinity College Dublin sounded and the whole crowd fell silent save for the quiet sobbing of a number of women and children and a siren from the docks calling on the men to down tools for the two-minute silence.
Then Maj Gen William Hickie, the man who first instigated the idea of a series of memorial Celtic crosses to remember the Irish who died, stepped forward. He slipped the cord and the black draping covering the monument fell to earth. He placed a wreath on the head of the cross where the inscription was carved into the granite “16th (Irish) Division”.
A wreath was laid by Senator Col Maurice Moore, formerly of the Connaught Rangers, on behalf of the Government. It read, “O Rialtas Saorstát Éireann i gcuimhne na nÉireannach uile a fuair bás son choga mór (From the Government of Saorstat Eireann in memory of all the Irishmen who died in the Great War)”.
The cross had been paid for by public subscription following a public appeal by Hickie, the officer who commanded the 16th (Irish) Division during the war, and Maj Gen Bryan Mahon, both senators in the Irish Free State.
“Every nation whose sons took part in the war has erected on the scene of their victories and sacrifices some monument to commemorate their share in the great effort and testify to its remembrance,” the men wrote, successfully appealing for funds.
The Irish Times commented favourably on the Armistice Day 1924 events in Dublin. “The brave have now been honoured in their native land. Loyalty to the Empire is seen to be consistent with perfect loyalty to the Free State. The Government’s tolerant and moderate policy is largely responsible for the better conditions of things.”
There would be three identical crosses in total – the first for Guillemont, the second remembered the 16th (Irish) Division’s liberation of the Flanders villages of Wytschaete in 1917 (along with the 36th (Ulster) Division, and a third was erected in the mountains of Macedonia to remember the 10th (Irish) Division and their involvement in the Salonika campaign on the Eastern Front.
The Guillemont Cross was finally erected in France on August 23rd, 1926. The guest of honour was Field Marshal Joseph Joffre, the acclaimed saviour of France and the victor of the most important battle of the war, the Battle of the Marne in September 1914. Ireland and France, he said, were “sisters in sorrow”.
More than 1,200 Irishmen were killed in the liberation of the villages of Guillemont and Ginchy during the Battle of the Somme in September 1916. The most famous fatality of all was Tom Kettle, who died at Ginchy on September 9th.
Two Victoria Crosses were awarded to Irishmen at Guillemont.
One went to Lieut John Holland of the 7th Leinsters, the son of a vet from Model Farm, Athy, Co Kildare. He showed extraordinary dash in leading his men on a bombing party which cleared German trenches and captured some 50 prisoners.
The other was awarded to Private Thomas Hughes from Castleblayney, Co Monaghan, of the Connaught Rangers. He was initially injured, but had his wound dressed and returned to battle.
He singlehandedly disabled a German machine-gun post and was badly wounded in the assault. Hughes returned to Ireland and spent his latter years in poverty, eventually dying at the age of 56 in an old workhouse.
His family were forced to sell his medals, which were acquired by the National Army Museum in London.
It has lent the Victoria Cross to the newly opened Monaghan County Museum, where it is now on display.