Sligo has 390 names on new World War website
Sligo has 390 names listed ''In Flanders Field,'' the new online website of war dead which was launched in Dublin yesterday, Friday. The new site was developed by Google, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Belgium-based 'In Flanders Field Museum' from original records held in the city of Ypres, Belgium.
These records which were first published in 1923 listing the soldiers from Ireland who died in the First World War have now been corrected and updated. The records can be searched by name, place of birth, rank, regiment, service number, date of death and place of burial / commemoration where that information is known.
The new website focusses on World War One and on Irish, North and South, who fought and died while serving in the British Army. Sligo town is well represented in the saddest of circumstances. However, a random search by Sligo Today of some names known to have died in the War failed to show them or their unit listed under 'Sligo.'
But the new site underlines that Sligo soldiers who died in World War One serving in the British Army came from villages as far apart as Ballymote, Ballintogher, Castleconnor, Geevagh, Grange and Cliffoney. This underlines a picture which had emerged the previous autumn when Keash, Tubbercurry and Grange all, for example, publicly agreed with John Redmond's call for Irish Volunteers at the war front.
Cars at Disposal
In Sligo town the prominent voices supporting Redmond's call included Mayor John Jinks and the Dominican Order at Holy Cross. The Catholic Bishop of Elphin, Dr Coyne, even placed cars at the disposal of those who wished to travel to Boyle to enlist. Some speakers had suggested at Sligo Corporation meetings during World War One that ''country people'' were coming into town and taking jobs held by Sligo borough soldiers while they were fighting with the British Army.
On the other hand, some younger people in the county area of Sligo tried -- sometimes unsuccessfully -- to emigrate to America in case they would be conscripted. Yesterday's ceremony saw the site launched in Dublin by the Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Gilmore. “Most significant," said the Tanaiste, "is its value in facilitating the simple and important act of remembering the individuals, Irish men and women, who lost their lives in the First World War.”
Human Impact
In attendance also were the First Minister of Northern Ireland, Peter Robinson and the Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness. Mr Robinson hoped that "As we enter an important decade of commemorations in both our countries...what has been established here today will keep alive the history and the stories of those who did not return from war." Martin McGuinness noted over 200,000 Irishmen fought in the war and over 49,000 were killed, "which shows the human impact of the war on the island of Ireland. It is important all their personal stories are told." he said.
The new site aims to assist families, researchers and students worldwide to learn more about the contribution of Ireland, North and South, in what was viewed then as "the war to end all wars." Up to now the copy of such records within the Republic was retained in bound volumes in Marsh's Library in Dublin.
Wounded at Gallipoli
Details for individual soldiers are still scant on the new website, which makes an appeal for families to help develop it further. "If you have information, documents, pictures, letters or anything else that adds to our knowledge about thee World War One casualties," it asks "please send to namenlijst@ieper.be
Among the names listed in a search of the new website yesterday was Robert Burnside of Sligo town. Other websites confirm he was wounded at Gallipoli in September 1915 and died aboard a hospital ship bound for Southampton. Burnside, aged 34 and a tailor with Henry Lyons, was accorded British military honours and a gun salute when he was buried in Sligo Cemetery. There are three Commonwealth graves in Sligo Cemetery arising from the First World War but only one grave is associated with the Dardanelles and Gallipoli campaign, ie Robert Burnside.
His funeral was one of the biggest then ever seen in the town and the procession through Sligo also saw a shutdown of its main businesses. The regimental number allocated to Burnside suggests he enlisted with the 5th Battalion of the Connaught Rangers on September 2nd 1914. Almost a year later he and other Sligo soldiers were deployed in the landing at Suvla Bay, His comrades who survived were later evacuated to Salonika.
Cradle to Crutch
The Burnside funeral is memorably recorded in James McGuinn's 1994 book "Sligo Men in the Great War 1914-1918." Said McGuinn: "It appeared that everyone in the town from the cradle to the crutch turned out to pay their last respects. "As the Connaught Rangers band played the Last Post men, women and children were seen to weep at the graveside," added McGuinn. A noted footballer in his earlier days, Burnside left a widow and six children in Holborn Street.
When his widow died in 1956, one of their children, Margaret (Peggy), presented his soldiery items to Sligo Museum, said her son Noel Burns in a 2013 posting on the Great War Museum's website. The items presented to Sligo Museum -- four decades after his death -- included Robert Burnside's uniform, rifle, bayonet and the medals he had been awarded. His brother, Andrew Burnside, already held the Distinguished Conduct Medal, having enlisted in Sligo to fight in the Boer War in South Africa when barely out of his teens. The 390 deaths listed for Sligo on the new website launched yesterday compares with Roscommon 318, Leitrim 244, Galway 754, Donegal 674 and Mayo 694 fatalities.
Source: http://www.sligotoday.ie
