DEC 2004
Donegal Book of Honour
The launch of County Donegal Book of Honour is a remarkable step
in ensuring that thousands of young men and women who gave their
lives during the First World War are no longer forgotten.
Over 1,200 men and women from all classes and creeds and from all
parts of Donegal failed to return from the War.
Out of 300,000 of those who did return, found themselves in a changed
political climate at home, where it was no longer popular in many
places to mention their involvement in the war, and so began years
of almost collective amnesia where those who had fought were pushed
under a stone of Irish history and left there.
Paddy Harte, former Donegal North-East T.D. began a journey to
ensure that those from Ireland who had lost their lives in this
'great war' were no longer forgotten. Having made a head start through
his own research, Paddy decided that there would not be a better
place to start than in Donegal. Similar work has begun all over
Ireland, overseen by the National Book of Honour Committee which
includes such dignitaries as former Dr President Patrick Hilary
and former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds.
In Donegal through examination of Church records and appeals in
the local media, details flooded in, of men and women who had died.
They were details that filled in the gaps left when Paddy Harte
had first saw names like P. Doherty under crosses while walking
through the cemeteries in Flanders and the Somme and wondered, 'who
is he, was that Peter, Paddy, Paul. From all over Donegal details
flooded in from, Muff, Greencastle, Moville, Burt, Buncrana, Carndonagh,
Newton, Culdaff, Gleneely, Malin, Clonmany, Fahan and Quigleys Point,
from all over Inishowen came names and details of men and women
who had died. They came from the rest of the country also, to help
make up the first edition of the book, yet a further thirty names
were uncovered for this second edition. It is an edition that even
those who feel they have no interest in history, will find fascinating.
The photographs used help in some way to depict the kind of horrors
that were endured during this war that had once been said would
end all wars.
The names are in a Book of Honour now, they are no longer forgotten.
Copies of the book will be available in shops across the north west
from this week.
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