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IT WAS HELL caked in mud, a battle that raged on the Western Front in the middle of a war that seemed to have no end and no mercy.
There was a beacon of mercy for some of the soldiers bogged down in the muddy trenches during the Battle of Messines, which took place 100 years ago this month, three years into World War I.
That beacon was an Irish chaplain, Fr William Doyle, who refused the relative safety of the behind-the-line hospitals to tend to the spiritual needs of the dying on the frontline.
“There’s an account that Doyle went around with a shovel, gave last rites and buried soldiers that died,” says Lar Joye, curator of the military history collections at the National Museum of Ireland.
The museum at Collins Barracks has had an exhibition running this year to focus on the Battle of Messines – and a new section has just opened to look at what happened to the Irish soldiers who fought on the Western Front in 1917.
Fr Doyle saw it all.
This really is at the front end of the horrors of war and he was there the whole time.
“He brought a lot of peace to people who had been badly wounded. That’s why he was so popular, because he was out there on the front. He really was with the men when he could have easily stayed back in the hospital and done his job there,” says Joye.
“He insisted on being up the front and because of that the soldiers admired him.”
Fr Doyle was born in Dalkey, Dublin in 1873. He entered the Jesuit Novitiate at the age of 18. He volunteered for war duties in November 1915 and was later appointed chaplain of the 16th Irish Division, serving with 8th Royal Irish Fusiliers, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, 9th Royal Dublin Fusiliers, 6th Royal Irish Rifles and the 7th Royal Irish Rifles.
Chaplains were never subject to being forced to join armies. Any chaplain that signed up did so voluntarily.
Fr Doyle was killed on 16 August 1917 after a day ministering to the wounded and dying on the battlefield at Ypres. His body was never recovered.
The horror of Messines
His story is not the only one told in the new exhibition. In 1917, two whole Irish divisions fought side-by-side at the Battle of Messines.
From its outbreak in July 1914, World War I had spread across the towns and villages along the Western Front, eventually destroying almost 80% of Belgium.
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The Battle of Messines was launched on 7 June 1917 by General Herbert Plumer’s Second Army with the detonation of 19 underground mines.
The target of the offensive was the Messines Ridge, a natural stronghold southeast of Ypres, and a small German salient since late 1914. The seven-day attack led to the much larger Third Battle of Ypres (known as Passchendaele).
This battle ran from 31 July to 10 November 1917.
The 36th (Ulster) and 16th (Irish) Divisions suffered terrible casualties in assaulting concrete forts amid the mud of an unusually wet autumn.
“What makes 1917 more horrific was that it rained heavily throughout that summer from the end of July. That’s how the battle got bogged down,” says Joye.
The destruction of Ypres, Belgium during the Battle of Messines. National Museum of Ireland
National Museum of Ireland
Through most of its brief existence, the 16th Division was commanded by William Hickie from Tipperary.
The 16th Division was seen as an Irish nationalist division and Hickie, a Catholic and supporter of Home Rule, was a popular commander. He tried to encourage his troops by awarding a special certificate to deserving soldiers.
In the summer of 1917, Hickie recommended Fr Doyle for the Victoria Cross, adding to the Military Medal that he had already won. The Victoria Cross is the highest award of the United Kingdom honours system.
However, he was eventually denied a Victoria Cross due to “the triple disqualification of being an Irishman, a Catholic and a Jesuit”.
ictured, National Museum of Ireland
ictured, National Museum of Ireland
Part of Fr Doyle’s officer uniform is currently on display at the museum, along with his gloves, medals and a letter from General Hickie.
Also on display at the exhibition are items from John Hunt, a young Irishman who became an officer during the war, and a motorcycle used by soldiers on the front line – 30,000 of these had been built in the course of the war.
National Museum of Ireland
National Museum of Ireland
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Sectarianism, bigotry, homophobia and a general us and them mentality still alive and well in ireland i see. Principal should be removed from his post if he can’t be a good human being how can he teach kids to be.
Cormac – it is only correct that she should now be disciplined. It would serve the teaching profession well too. Your take on equality is just bizarre Cormac, she is an educator who has been found to have described a child as ‘abnormal’ on account of the fact she seems to think he is homosexual.
It’s not acceptable to call anybody abnormal but in this case he was not her student not a student of the school therefor not a pupil calling a person abnormal in any form is not acceptable but unfortunately still happens. I sat through 6 months of maternity appointments with a big sticker on my maternity file saying abnormal foetus, after there were concerns about my baby!,all he had was a cleft lip which has been fixed and he is perfect in every other way. As humans we should avoid using the word abnormal when referring to one and other. I can’t put into words how that word makes me feel.
I’m against people being overly politically correct….however, any person in a senior position in any organisation should be aware that the words they use can be upsetting to others. I find it incredible that with all the training out educators get, and hopefully having a small amount of common sense, that remarks like this would still be made. We are indeed a funny nation, on the one hand we vote in favour of equality for our gay brethren and yet people will jump to defend this school principal.
The fact that she didn’t get her Irish language qualification in the time frame specified shows that he was right to say she tricked her way in to a contract. I’m not defending what he said about her son, but people are entitled to their beliefs. He didn’t call him any derogatory names that could be construed as homophobic. He voiced an opinion that gay people hear every day. I hope she didn’t use her son’s sexuality and the principal’s dinosaur attitude as an emotive defence against her own breach of trust on the Irish language issue.
As a principal she should have been well aware of her right to get a permanent contract after four years. Anyone in a position of authority should be supportive of their staff, although I am aware this isn’t always the case.
Patrick from my reading of the article both persons involved are females, not males.
The teacher did not trick her way into a contract of indefinite duration. Any employer who does not know or understand employment law and the entitlements of workers is responsible for the worker obtaining a contract of indefinite duration in these circumstances. In the first instance this responsibility lay with the Principal (and then the Board of Management) who having failed to discharge it then blames the teacher. Risible.
While you are there ,Fin/Lin/Cormac – what do you make of the comments by the new master of the Rotunda that women carrying babies diagnosed with fatal foetal abnormalities should not have to travel to the UK for abortions ?
It was just as bad in catholic schools. On P.E day we weren’t allowed wear premiership jerseys or else we’d have to sit in the classroom, teachers didn’t want “foreign games” in the school. A fair few kids in the class were often singled out because they had rips or tears in their uniforms and made a show of by the teachers. I remember one child being told he should be taken off his parents as they were raising an idiot, we’re talking primary so under 10 years of age. This was the nineties in Dublin by the way
Sounds inhumane Nigel.
Ever consider writing a script and having a film made of your schooldays.
A Greek tragedy along the lines of Angela’s Ashes.
Hollywood execs would be banging your door down to make it.
That wasn’t the point I was making. I was saying that type of bullying goes on everywhere. Then again I had it light compared to people who were “educated” by catholic priests who used schools as hunting grounds for little kids.
The principal should be fired and all schools should be taken over by the state. The fact that the principal was making these remarks about what was a teenage boy at the time is quite simply beyond belief.
I wonder if the Teaching Council or the INTO has anything to say about this?
Why is that Patrick. School principal, an educator, a teacher describes a young boy as abnormal because she thinks e is homosexual. How on earth is that acceptable in your world?
Try moving from the Uk to an irish catholic school at 8 yrs old, Oran, you’ll see plenty of discrimination!!! I still shudder when I think of one particular
teacher back in the early 80′s.
Seems to have been more about the means by which this teacher acquired a Contract of Indefinite Duration than about homophobia. People should be aware that today, principals have very little autonomy in selecting the staff for their schools – most have to be picked from the list provided by the supplementary panel. Might explain why it’s getting harder to recruit principals for schools.
I feel so lucky that we have an equality tribunal in this country. We are so amazing. I just love quality. Equality for everyone. Yeaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Tense shifts for indirect speech. Semantic range of the continuous present of the verb to be. No? Why am I asking? It’s the journal. Great app, crapp writers.
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