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A GROUP COLLATING the names of thousands of Irish World War I veterans will hold a memorial service next weekend to remember all those who survived the war.
The Ireland’s World War 1 Veterans project is run by volunteers and aims to gather the names of all those who fought in and survived the Great War.
The database currently contains almost 31,000 names of Irish men and women who fought in World War I from a range of backgrounds.
The group hopes to ultimately erect a memorial in both Dublin and Belfast to list the names of these veterans.
Project founder Sabina Purcell told TheJournal.ie that she has been amazed with how the All-Ireland project has progressed since it was started last week.
“I thought it would be good to reach 500 names, but it has grown so much,” she said.
“A lot of people are eager to get in touch and share their stories. What usually happens is one person emails with details of several of their relatives who fought in the war.”
“We don’t question the reasons why they joined,” Purcell said.
It could be because they needed a source of income, it could have been for the adventure, it could because they simply believed in democracy.
While many found it difficult to find employment when returning from World War I, some found work with companies like Guinness, the postal service, and Dublin Corporation.
“Unfortunately, some of them were vilified, some of them were even spat out on the street.”
Next Sunday the veterans group will hold a ecumenical service at 2.30pm in St. Laurence’s Church, Stillorgan, Co Dublin.
“We want to be as diplomatic and as inclusive as possible,” Purcell said, “so we’re asking anyone who’s coming along to bring a single stemmed flower of their choice to the service.”
A Google-backed project to collate the names of the 41,000 Irish who died in the conflict was launched earlier this year.
Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore said that the digitisation of the records was “making up for lost time”.
Details of how to contact the Ireland’s World War 1 Veterans project are available here, or you can email contact@worldwar1veterans.com.
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They should have asked liam neeson.he won’t be busy for next while id say.
@Seriously stunned: na, he probably will. I’m sure rational people can interpret what he actually said, and not let the gutter press do it for them.
@Seriously stunned: Kevin hart is racist too that’s why there’s no host
@Damien Barton: Sure apparantly everyone’s a racist now
@Damien Barton: Hart is not hosting because he is homophobic. Although he could be racist also, it’s hard to keep up.
@Lily Martin: he’s not homophobic. Do keep up.
@Aidan Mitchell: who are these rational people of whom you speak?
I hear your a racist now father
Who would want to host the number one SJW event of the year? Especially after seeing what they did to Kevin Hart
@PC Principal:
And more people watched the food channel last year than the Oscars, which is why they’ve introduced a new award “Most popular movie”, a desperate stunt to recover viewers.
DeNiro’s recent outburst on stage against Trump was a typical example of the mindset of these detached self-adulatory millionaires and why people are tuning out in their droves.
@The Quare Fella: Hollywood is in the process of disappearing up its one bum.
If you want to know how well a movie did these days then you just have to look it up online instead of a show being hosted by questionable people telling us what we should think and what deserves an award because they belong to a particular race and gender that happens to be the flavour of the month
Maroon 5 could be hosting after the terrific job they did at the Superbowl :)
And not a white male honky amongst them I bet.
@Graham Murphy: if you’re interested; they’re listed in the article you skipped past on your way to comment. Daniel Craig and Chris Evans, just in case you can’t be bothered.
Who gives a damn about it
Trump!
I ended watching the ‘Oscars’ when Adrien Brody got best actor over Daniel Day Lewis.
“Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”
@Punker: “Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. It doesn’t last as long if you’re fat.”
@Kem Trayle: :) :)
The patriarchal systems of institutionalized structures are problematic
Liam Neeson and Kevin Hart would make it interesting
Good. Less stupid comments.
have your say