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100 YEARS AGO today, the Battle of Mons broke out.
15,000 Irishmen formed part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) who arrived at Belgian town in August 1914.
This video by Ronan McGreevy recounts how an Irishman fired the British Army’s first shot of the war and how Irish Lieutenant Maurice Dease manned a machine gun to hold a railway bridge across the Mons-Condé Canal outside Mons.
Today, Mons is marking the battle, which saw around 1,600 British and over 5,000 German soldiers die.
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How it tears the heart 100 years later at those who never aged…..
Great Video. Hopefully more will be posted to commemorate that era in Irish History.
What a waste of lives The ‘Great War’
I don’t want to be reminded of World War One continuously I’m afraid. It sickens me to think of how many millions of lives that were needlessly wasted., from whatever country. It makes me angry. Surely a simple November 11 ceremony, simple and poignant., is enough
my comment was deleted for saying that.
@seeking..
what if I came on here bad mouthing how your brethren Muslims have being trying to wipe each other off the face of the planet since before WWI & even up today.. Is that “yawn” material too?
Seeking, you remind me of the Westboro Baptists that protest at US soldiers’ funerals. Have some respect. No one disrespects your beliefs.
The westbro baptists have agreed to confront IS about their anti christian behavior, would love to be a fly on the wall there !!
You mightn’t agree with what he said but why the need to delete it, there was nothing abusive in the comment.
I’ve never been able to determine any rhyme, reason, method or consistency in the moderation of comments on the Journal so I’ve just concluded it’s down to someone’s mood on the day.
Strange getting red thumbs for backing the boys that gave their lives so some dumbshits here are free to disagree
SeekingUniversalTruth, hindsight is a wonderful thing, isn’t it? There’s no need to be so insulting about the young men who fought in the war, many did it because they had no job, no money and hungry kids. There are other ways to express your feelings, without hurting the feelings of others.
The reason for the term great war was nothing to do with the nobility of the cause but more because of the vast loss of lives that occurred
Go away you nasty troll!!
yawn
why did you remove my comment? Censorship again.
I’m entitled to my opinion and i’m entitled not to have my opinion censored by you.
For the record. Yawn to this story and yawn to ww1 and ww2…………………..
No one wants your childish opinion shoved in their face. Go cry somewhere else.
Don’t bother reading then you knob jockey. Nobody makes you click on the story.
what’s childish about this……………….
i don’t want to be reminded about how so called irishmen fought for britain while the british army were murdering irishmen women and children.
Answers on a postcard please.
You are entitled to your opinion (no matter how moronic it is). however, if you want to use this site to express it then you gotta live by the rules.
@Seeking ..Such a disgraceful & disrespectful series of comments.
Is that what they teach you at your mosque?
Great men total respect . Ireland’s bravest of the brave .
Seeking, there are suitable publications where simpletons can air their idiotic racist views. I am sure that you would find An Phoblacht of interest. I have been told it contains photographs, a colouring section and a crossword puzzle where the solutions do not contain any words in excess of four letters. There is also a junior version of the same publication for those who are not suitably advanced to read the senior edition.
irishmen is hardly a fair description of those who joined the british army and murdered irishmen women and kids.
TRAITORS ONE AND ALL
Seeking, please read my post above – you are embarrassing yourself here. If the post is too difficult for you to comprehend you might seek assistance from a non-Shinner type adult.
Jeeze, another armchair terrorist and patriot. Hates the British but still watches coronation street.
Its because so many young men died that ass:oles like you are free to yawn in public. May you rot in hell
Why were they great men Tommy . They gave their lives as cannon fodder in a war that was basically about control of financial markets. Unfortunate men with no options. Great ? I don’t think so
How did they due for freedom stephen. Are you getting your WW1 and WW2 mixed up
Less of the knob jockey. He’s just a KNOB!
We have had plenty of traitors In this country since the inception of this state, elected traitors, religious traitors and financial traitors and none of these cretins could hold a candle to the brave IRISHMEN who fought in the Great war and I want to say to Jamie and I have said it before thank you for your dignity and respect re: these men, as I’ve said before our ideologies are polarised but you display class much more than even I could as for S.U.T. I feel sorry for you, ignorance is a genetic affliction, you can’t help it.
@SeekingUniverslTruth
Your allegation that the British Army murdered Irish women and children is nonsense. Crimes were committed by a small minority of British soldiers.
Millions of soldiers on both sides in World War One fought honourably. Millions of people died in hostilities in World War One and, even after the Treaty of Versailles was signed to formally end that war, an even more horrendous conflict was still to come.
The headline on this story is misleading and factually incorrect: whilst tens of thousands of Irish participated in the Great War Ireland had no involvement whatsoever.
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