Irish priests in WW1

R.Dub.Fusilier · 21-10-2009 10:29pm #1

When we think of WW1 we think of the mud , pain , trench warfare , going over the top and the slaughter . But we often we forget the non-combatants the medical corps and the chaplains. These men went into the battle field un-armed to help the sick and the dying , when in some cases nobody else would dare go. Here are the medal index cards to a couple of the more famous Irish priests , Fr. Finn was killed before he left the River Clyde at V Beach Gallipolis . FR Willie Doyle of the RDF who was killed in action in France , and Fr Browne of the Irish Guards who survived the war and was a noted photographer and many books of his work were published after his death. These men were loved by their men and were by their sides in their moment of need. many priests won Military Medals , Military Cross etc. Does anyone know of any others Irish or otherwise ?

arnhem44 · 22-10-2009 12:29am

I have the names of a few that were mentioned in a local booklet brought out a few years back,I'll post there names up in the morning.There men are largely forgotten or were never recognized properly in my own opinion,I picked up only today a WW1 postcard of a Chaplin talking to a wounded soldier on a stretcher.

arnhem44 · 22-10-2009 12:59pm

ok it says here in the booklet I have that there was seven Chaplins who lost there lives at the third battle of Ypres(Passchendaele),it states that Fr.Francis Browne was wounded on the 9th of October 1917 and attached to the Irish Guards.A Fr.Fitzmaurice(Military Cross) heard the confession of Fr.Willie Doyle before Fr.Doyle was killed fifteen minutes later.Next one I have is a Fr.Francis Gleeson who was Chaplin to the 2nd Munsters from 1914 to 1918.In 1915 on the eve of the attack on Aubers Ridge he accompanied the battalion eight hundred strong to the line.In the first battle of Ypres Fr.Gleeson stripped off his Chaplin's badges and taking command of the battalion held the line after all the Officers had been either wounded or killed.The next one is Fr.Tom Duggan,a staunch Nationalist from the parish of Ballyheeda,Ballinhassig Co.Cork.He volunteered as a chaplin and arrived in Flanders in 1917.His postings were to the 1st Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers and then the Munsters and finally the Connaught Rangers.He became a P.O.W on the 22nd of March 1918 during the German spring offensive and was interned as a prisoner in Mainz until the Armistice.He also volunteered and served during WW2 and was present at the retreat to Dunkirk and was awarded the M.C and O.B.E for outstanding bravery.He died in 1961 aged 71 in Peru and the bridge at the mouth of the Bandon river in Cork is named after him.The last two I have here is a Fr.Jeremiah Cullinane who was seriously wounded but gives no further info and Canon Joseph Scannell who was attached to the Irish Guards and was awarded th M.C for bravery in France.He was later appointed by Bishop Coholan as Chaplin to the Free State Army at Collins Barracks in Cork.

R.Dub.Fusilier · 23-10-2009 7:49pm

Fr. Browne also won the military cross for bravery. he saved the irish guards flag from capture in WW1 and wrote

'' During the battle of Nieppe Forest in April , 1918 , the headquarters company were shelled out of the farm at verte Rue. they forgot to take this flag and i , seeing it, saved it from falling into the hands of the germans . i refused to return it to the company saying that it was mine by right of war, as they had left it behind ''.

the day before Fr Doyle was killed he wrote to his brother about him

'' Fr Doyle is a marvel . you may talk of heroes and saints , they are hardly in it! i went back the other day to see the old Dubs. as I heard they were having ,we'll say, a taste of war. no one has yet been appointed to my place and Fr Doyle has done double work . so unpleasant were the conditions that the men had to be relieved frequently. Fr Doyle had nobody to relieve him and so he stuck to the mud and the shells, the gas and the terror''.

he was on the maiden voyage of the titanic and took photos on board that were published around the world after the liner sank. someone on board offered to pay his fare to the US but after he contacted his bishop he was promptly told to disembark at Cobh.

goldie fish · 23-10-2009 9:47pm

There is a famous painting of an Irish Regiment getting the final absolution during WW1. I think it is the Munster Fusiliers. Which Priest was that?

arnhem44 · 23-10-2009 11:40pm

That was Fr.Gleeson and the Munsters.

goldie fish · 25-10-2009 11:24am

Thank you. Must keep a lookout for that.

arnhem44 · 25-10-2009 2:36pm

Here's a link for the painting

http://www.roguery.com/cities/naples/history/matania/

arnhem44 · 25-10-2009 5:22pm

Just had a browse online and came up with another few names,there was around five hundred Catholic Chaplins who served with the B.E.F of whom 51 recieved the Military Cross,below is a photo of Fr.James McRory from Derry who was with the 16th Irish Division at Passchendaele and was wounded on the 21 of October 1917,also from Derry were Fr.Hugh Smith from Moville and Fr.William Devine from Castlederg.I found two other also but no first names, a Fr.Casey from Kerry and a Fr.Bradley from Cork.The last bit of info I came across isn't Irish related but here it is anyway.Angelo Roncalli who served as a Medical Orderly and Chaplin with the Italin Army who later became Pope John XXXIII.Anyone with any info of any other clergy from the Church of Ireland and so on?,I'm sure there was many of these men also present.

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Fr James McRory
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McArmalite · 27-10-2009 6:31pm

arnhem44 wrote: »

I have the names of a few that were mentioned in a local booklet brought out a few years back,I'll post there names up in the morning.There men are largely forgotten or were never recognized properly in my own opinion,I picked up only today a WW1 postcard of a Chaplin talking to a wounded soldier on a stretcher.

" There men are largely forgotten or were never recognized properly in my own opinion " Their's a fine memorial to them at Islandbrige, but you wouldn't know anything about it as you've never been to it :rolleyes::). But sure if their was a memorial at every street corner and cross roads around the country it still wouldn't be enough for you would it.

R.Dub.Fusilier · 27-10-2009 7:33pm

McArmalite wrote: »

" There men are largely forgotten or were never recognized properly in my own opinion " Their's a fine memorial to them at Islandbrige, but you wouldn't know anything about it as you've never been to it :rolleyes::). But sure if their was a memorial at every street corner and cross roads around the country it still wouldn't be enough for you would it.

come on McA the same nugget of information again. you do know that some of the priests who served in WW1 were nationalists. Fr Browne pleaded save the life Kevin Barry.

McArmalite · 27-10-2009 7:37pm

R.Dub.Fusilier wrote: »

come on McA the same nugget of information again. you do know that some of the priests who served in WW1 were nationalists. Fr Browne pleaded save the life Kevin Barry.

Interesting that about Fr. Frowne pleading to save Kevin Barry. I'm not questioning if the priests were nationalists RDF, all I'm doing is proving the same nugget of information to the same BS assertion.

arnhem44 · 27-10-2009 9:26pm

Nice one Mc nice one. Love the usual waffle,it makes my day to see this forum growing and growing from reactionaries like yourself.;)

arnhem44 · 21-11-2009 12:32pm

Came across this,makes for interesting reading.

In Memory of
Chaplain 4th Class The Rev. JOHN GWYNN

Army Chaplains' Department
attd. 1st Bn., Irish Guards
who died
on 12 October 1915

Remembered with honour
BETHUNE TOWN CEMETERY

John Gwynn was born in 1866 in Galway. He joined the Jesuits in 1884. Although he was not a pupil of Belvedere, Fr John Gwynn SJ was associated with the college by teaching there for some time. Having studied at Louvain University, he became a professor at Clongowes and later served on the governing body at University College Dublin. His obituary in The Clongownian 1916 stated the following:

He was a powerful and eloquent preacher, and questions of sociology had a strong attraction for him. One of the papers he read some years ago before the Catholic Truth Society on social problems in Dublin was of special interest. His Lenten Lectures at St Francis Xavier’s, Gardiner Street, received much attention.

As soon as the war broke out, Fr Gwynn volunteered to serve as a chaplain on active service, even though, as he often said afterwards, he had no idea what his work would be. In the first week of November 1914 he was assigned to the 4th class attached to 1st Battalion of the Irish Guards.

When he first joined the division, the soldiers were in a little French village resting, re-equipping after suffering badly at the front line at Ypres. Fr Gwynn got to work immediately, getting to know the men. After a few days, he had settled in as if he had been with them from the beginning.

One of the Irish Guards (himself an Old Belvederian) wrote about Fr Gwynn - He was actually loved by the men of our battalion, and too much cannot be said of the way in which he looked after each and every man of the battalion.

His first experiences were very rough. It was January 15th when I saw him wading in the water up to his chest to reach the front line of the trenches to comfort the men with his jolly conversation.

When the battalion was in the trenches or in action, Gwynn stayed with the Medical Officer at the Battalion Regimental Aid Post - the place where wounded soldiers are taken for first dressings. He would share the Medical Officer’s dugout so that he would waste no time in getting to an injured man, if need be, day or night. During the day, heedless to his own danger, he would constantly go round the trenches to talk to the men, even if they were being shelled.

Fr Gwynn also undertook all the normal work of a Jesuit, saying Mass, hearing confession, administering Extreme Unction (the last rites) whenever it was necessary and invariably reading the burial service over men who were killed, even if it meant that he would have to stand up at night in an open battlefield swept by bullets.

He helped the men to keep up their morale and deflected their attention from the war during times of rest by employing his time in organising sports and concerts for the men. He even trained some of them to form a choir. They used to sing at his services.

On 6 February 1915, Fr Gwynn was slightly wounded by a shell that burst near him. However, he remained on duty. In April and early May he began to suffer from lumbago, but he still stayed with his men. It wasn’t until mid May that Fr Gwynn, completely crippled, was taken to hospital. He returned in mid June, before he was really fit to do so. Unfortunately, he was never quite as strong as he had been before his illness.

Lord Desmond Fitzgerald, the Captain of the 1st Irish Guards, wrote the following account of Fr Gwynn and how he met his death in a letter to a Jesuit priest, William Delany SJ -

Quote:
No words of mine could express or even give a faint idea of the amount of good he has done us all out here, or how bravely he faced all dangers and how cheerful and comforting he has always been. It is certainly no exaggeration to say that he was loved by every officer, N.C.O. and man in the battalion. The Irish Guards owe him a deep and lasting debt of gratitude, and as long as any of us are left who saw him out here, we shall never forget his wonderful life, and shall strive to lead a better life by following his example.
The unfortunate shell landed in the door of the Headquarter dug-out just as we had finished luncheon, on October 11th. Father Gwynn received one or two wounds in the leg, as well as a piece of shell in his back through his lung. He was immediately bound up and sent to hospital, but died from shock and his injuries at 8 a.m. the next morning, October 12th. He was buried in the cemetery at Bethune, at 10 a.m. on October 13th. May his soul rest in peace.
Fr Gwynn had made it his unfaltering practice to write to the relations of any man who had fallen and, in this way, his words brought comfort to many Irish families. He had always been found in the worst of places ready to help the wounded or administer sacraments to the dying. It was said that he would have been happy to die as a ‘soldier of God’.

The following is the inscription on Fr Gwynn’s gravestone, although his age should be given as 50 years.

R.I.P.
REV. FATHER JOHN GWYNN, S.J.,
attached to the 1st Irish Guards

He died at Béthune on October 12th, 1915,
from wounds received in action near Vermelles
on October 11th, 1915. Aged 44 years.

This Monument has been erected by all ranks of
the 1st Bat. Irish Guards in grateful Remembrance of their Beloved Chaplain,
Father Gwynn,
who was with them on active service for nearly 12 months
from Nov., 1914 until his death,
and shared with unfailing devotion all their trials and hardships.
__________________

TPMc · 28-01-2017 6:30pm

My Derry-born, Irish Catholic Great-Great Uncle, who was attached to the 1st Connaughts as a machine gunner and, later, as a runner died of a gunshot wound, somewhere in France on the Western Front in July of 1915. He was 28 years old. He was part of the Regular British Army. I believe Fr. McRory from Derry was assigned to the Connaught Rangers but, much later, sometime in 1917? Does anyone know who might've been the R.C. Chaplain(s) of the 1st Connaught Rangers on 10 July, 1915?

tac foley · 30-01-2017 12:27pm

This might be of some use..............

http://www.theygavetheirtoday.com/army-chaplains-ww1.html

tac

tuisginideach · 21-03-2023 5:51pm

I know this is an old post but just yesterday I was looking for information on Fr Thomas J. O'Connor CSsR who was Chaplain to the Connaught Rangers and was a curate near Loughrea by the late 1920s.

I found records of seven other Fathers O'Connor (who were Chaplains) on the UK's National Archives Discovery database.

Irish priests in WW1

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