Thanks to the recession, I finally got around to buying a small little house in my home town of Kinsale.  The previous owner passed away in 2008 and I went over to clear out the property at the weekend.

Amongst the previous owner’s belongings, were a couple of World War One medals which I wanted to share with ye. They were in their original envelope and addressed to a Mrs C Ahern of Higher Street, Kinsale, County Cork. Her husband must have died in the war..

When I opened the envelope, there were two little boxes inside.

On the sides of the boxes, it read: “James Ahern Dec’d”

Must have been awful for his wife to open the envelope and receive these in the post.

Inside each of the boxes, was an accompanying letter:

The first one had a Buckingham Palace Letterhead…

And the medal her husband never got to hold:

And this letter came with the other medal (dated 28th February, 1922):

And the medal:

I kept all the old photographs that were in the house.  They have names written on the back of the photographs identifying who is who, so I will post them on here when I get a chance.  Maybe people will be trying to piece a family history together and they may be of use to someone out there…

I downloaded his card from the National Archives Website, it doesn’t give much information other than his year of birth, which is 1874

There you have it now…

Ages ago I found another World War One Medal, read all about that here

]]> http://blog.shirleywalsh.com/clearing-out-the-house-973.html/feed 0 http://blog.shirleywalsh.com/patsys-corner-521.html http://blog.shirleywalsh.com/patsys-corner-521.html#comments Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:41:51 +0000 Shirley http://blog.shirleywalsh.com/?p=521 I don’t know where I read it now, but I read it somewhere and it said that training for a marathon is like being pregnant!  It takes over your life for several months and everyone gives you advice and tells you how they did it… 

Well I don’t know if that’s true but I thought of that analogy when I experienced an overwhelming, almerciful craving after my run tonight and I just can’t shake it off…

My craving was for a slice of this:

A Slice of Lemon Meringue Pie

I still can’t get it out of my mind.  My mouth is watering at the thought of it.  I haven’t had a slice of it in years…

I remember where and when I had my last slice of it though, it was here:

Good ol’ Patsy’s Corner in the heart of Kinsale Town…  and the Lemon Meringue Pie was made with Patsy’s own hands.

I would kill for one of Patsy’s Lemon Meringue Pies now…

She makes the best Lemon Meringue Pie without a doubt…

If anyone knows where you can get good Lemon Meringue Pie in London, please drop me a line…

And this is the back…

This medal is also known as “The Mons Star” – This was the First one of three to be issued and was known as “Pip” the other two later in the war were “Squeak and Wilfred”

I kind of got distracted with my own life after that and forgot about the medal again until the other night when a man responded to my forum query and sent me a link to the National Archives website where I was overjoyed to find corresponding records.

Here is his Service Record:

I discovered his name was Denis Driscoll.

I always wondered what his name was too… I was wondering would it be Daniel, or David…

He was born in Courcey, County Cork (The Courcey Parish in West Cork is bounded by Bandon to the north, Kinsale to the East, Killbrittain to the West, and the Atlantic ocean to the south and comprises of the Villages of Ballinadee and Ballinspittle.)

He was born on 13^th January 1872.

I think that ‘STO’ is most probably an abbreviation for Stoker, meaning that Denis worked in the bowels of the ship, probably loading coil for the ship’s boilers.

These are the ships he served on:

· HERMIONE Astraea Class , 2nd Class cruiser serving in the CHannel Fleet.

· WARSPITE (pictured below) Imperieuse Class , Armoured Cruiser, serving as Flagship in the Pacific.

· AMPHION Leander Class , 2nd Class Cruiser, serving on Mediterranean Station. Probably on loan as he rejoined WARSPITE again.

· PHAETON Leander Class, 2nd Class Cruiser , serving in the Pacific.

· EGERIA Sloop converted to Survey Ship, I have no details but will “best-guess” probably surveying the Pacific area.

· Return to PHAETON on Pacific Station.

· GRAFTON Edgar Class , on Pacific Station.

· Return to AMPHION in the Pacific and passage home to Devonport . Ship to Harbour Service Devonport.

· AEOLUS Apollo Class, 2nd Class Cruiser, based at Queenstown. Almost a home posting.

· DONEGAL Monmouth Class, Armoured Cruiser, Commissioned for China Station but ran aground.

· MONMOUTH as above, China Station.

· AMPHITRITE Diadem Class, 1st Class Cruiser, Ship served as a Tender to VIVID.

· WAR SERVICE

· LONDON Formidable Class Battleship. Served with the 5th Battle Squadron Channel Fleet based at Portland and Sherrness. March 1915 to the Dardanelles supporting the landings at Gaba Tepe and Anzac Cove. Transferred to Taranto to reinforce the Italian Fleet. October 1916 returned to Devonport.

• What does PIC 383709 mean? (hand written under Denis Driscoll’s name)
• What do the initials mean under rating?
• What does it mean when “Fisherman” is crossed out? Is it an admin error, do you think?
• Does anyone have any idea what “Gratuity for raising V14 Warspite” means? (This one is particularly difficult to get info on)
• Does anyone know what “RR 7475″ means? (written on bottom left)
• Can anyone decipher the handwriting beneath “Gratuity for raising V14 Warspite”?

I wondered about the background too, how would an Irishman fare on an English Ship within the Royal Navy given the tumultuous relationship between England & Ireland at that time? What would provoke an Irishman to go into Service? How would his fellow Irishmen have reacted to him?

Countless hundreds of Irish served in the British forces and usually with great distinction. For instance there was a most significant presence at Gallipoli.

He saw it as the best option to ensure the enactment of Home Rule after the war, realising that the Irish Volunteers would return as an armed army capable of confronting Ulster’s armed opposition to Home Rule.

Within a month of the start of the war this was agreed and the Irish National Volunteers were formed and encouraged to enlist.

Two Irish regiments were formed within the British Army – the 10th and 16th regiments and over 170,000 eventually joined. Also once this precedent had been established many also joined the Royal Navy.

This explains the apparent contradiction of why so many Irishmen fought on the side of the British.

Hopefully in time, I can find out more about Denis Driscoll, as more and more information is being digitalised and available online.

In the meantime, I want to put his details out there… He may be someone’s Grandfather, Great-Grandfather, Friend…

You never know who may come looking for him…

A Naval Service spokesman said the VMS was introduced under EU regulations to monitor fishing activity in EU waters and was never intended as an emergency service for trawlers.  While I understand this statement, it doesn’t sway my belief that on a stormy night the lads at Haulbowline could have been a little more vigilant.  I mean, on a human level; to keep a watch out for your fellow man, because you can, because you are sitting in front of equipment that makes this possible, then why not?  Because it’s not intended as an emergency service???

The last radio contact with Ger was at 11.55pm on January 11^th.  The search operation for the Honeydew II was only launched about 6pm on January 12^th

Tomasz Jagla

I’m going to take a trip back to the ol’ sod….  I’ll hop on one of these things:

While I’m waiting in the airport, I’ll sit at the bar, and have a few pints of the loosening juice and read a few pages of my book

The pints always get me in the mood for going out slapping backs in Kinsale after I touch down…  First port of call is the Greyhound, have a sniff around, see who’s about… then I’ll get dragged to the Bulman which is a bit of a trek, but the sister’s a big fan of the place and she’s doing the chauffeuring.  So off to the Bulman:

If it’s a blustery night, you’ll always feel it over at the Bulman because it sits at the edge of the harbour.  A few more pints to get the beer coat on…and if we’re lucky there might be some of this going on:

It’s close to closing, so away back into town, tuck ourselves safely into a pub before last call.

Then if I’ve enough pints in me, I may be persuaded to go to the local nightclub, God forgive me – terrible kip of a place – the white lady, they still have a slow set there where men come up and ask you to dance to the likes of “Unchained Melody” etc.  If you go out for a dance with any of the ol’ codgers, you’ll soon be wrestling with more than you bargained for… This is the white lady:

Away home in a taxi – Mike will be driving, he’s sound.  He always remembers me and we have great craic driving him mad on the way home.  Next morning, I’ll cook Jerry, my Brother one of my world famous breakfasts.  After, he will mark it out of ten.  I always get about 9 and a half out of 10.  He’ll dock me half a mark for the smallest things…just to be annoying.  He loves when I come home cuz he gets quality brekkies…

I might take a walk out the old head of Kinsale to clear away the cobwebs:

If my Brother, Johnny is in from sea, he might give me a tuna like he did the last time:

If not, I’ll head into fishy fishy:

This place is amazing.  They have the best food in the world.  I might go for something like this:

Might have a pint of Kinsale Lager to keep it company in me belly:

They say that Kinsale lager doesn’t have any chemicals in it, so you can drink it to your hearts content without getting a hangover. 

Did you know that a giant lived in Kinsale once?  His name was Patrick Cotter O’ Brien and he was born in 1760.  His shoe is inside in the museum in Kinsale.  I don’t know where his other shoe is.  He was eight foot and three inches and was the tallest man in the world at the time. When he was 18, a travelling showman discovered him working as a bricklayer and brought him to England to star in his “freak of nature” show.  

There you have it…

RE: Your black dog in the pub

He has the begging down to a T, I have seen him use and abuse people for their snacks.  As soon as they were finished their snacks he would jilt them like lost lovers.  He is a cunning piece of stuff. 

He is an attractive dog and I suggest you put notices up so that the public don’t ruin him.  He has the body of an athelete.  If I was a dog myself, I would most definately take him.  He has the best hind legs I’ve ever seen in my life.  God bless him. 

I look forward to seeing him in peak shape next year

All the best now, 

—–

From: ////@thebulman.com –> –> –> –> –>///@thebulman.com –>
Date: Jul 3, 2006 11:19 AM
Subject: Re: Your Black dog in the pub
To: Mick Magee –> –> –> –> –>///@gmail.com–>

Hello Mick,
 
Thanks for the info. I will let the owner know. The Dog does not belong to the bar but lives behind The Bulman. She is a great manipulator with those sad eyes and cute face, it is hard not to give in to her.
 
Glad you enjoyed your time here and I hope it will be as good on your return visit.
 
Regards,
 
C/// R///