Killed in the First and Second World Wars;  

Irish, British, Canadians and Australians.

             By Seán O’Beirne  
    [Editor’s Note: Our kith and kin from other countries, including the United States, are not included in this research. They will be the subject of future review.]  

    “The Subject is War, and the Pity of War.” --- Wilfred Owen (March 18, 1893 - November 4, 1918), Poet, Lieutenant, killed Samber Canal, buried Ors Communal Cemetery, Nord, France, Grave A 3.  

    “The First World War is a mystery. Its origins are mysterious. Why did a prosperous continent, at the height of its success as a source and agent of global wealth and power and at one of the peaks of its intellectual and cultural achievement, choose to risk all it had won for itself and all it offered to the world in the lottery of a vicious and local internecine conflict?” (Page 426)

    “The Second World War was a continuation of the First, and indeed it is inexplicable except in terms of the rancours and instabilities left by the earlier conflict.” (Page 423) --- John Keegan, “The First World War,” (1998).

    Some were born in Ireland, some in Scotland, England, Canada and Australia. They served in Irish, British, Canadian and Australian units. Some were in land based units, some in naval services and some in air units. They ranged from Privates and Able Seaman to Lieutenant and Squadron leader. One was a Foreign Office diplomat. Of the other forty-six, six were officers, thirteen were non-commissioned officers and twenty-seven were enlisted. 

    Twenty-one were named O’Beirne, twenty were named Beirne, three were Beirnes, one Berne, one Bernes and one Birne; a total of forty-seven.

    They are buried in thirty-seven different cemeteries in eleven different countries. It’s more accurate to say that they are commemorated in thirty-seven different memorials because, like many of their colleagues, their bodies were not found. They had died at sea, over hostile territory or been blown to bits especially in that awful conflict we call World War One.  

    Some served in the British Mercantile Marine, the Merchant Marine and the Royal Navy. Some were in the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Air Force. Ground troops were in units from Scotland, England, Canada and Australia. Two were in the Royal Canadian Air Force.  In the First World War, the number in Irish regiments is noteworthy by itself. Of the thirty-one of our kin who died in that conflict, seventeen were in Irish regiments. Given that most O’Beirne’s come from Connacht, we should expect to see a preponderance in the famous Connaught Rangers (nicknamed “The Devils Own”) which was based in Boyle, Co. Roscommon, when it was home, which was rarely. This was to some extent true as five of our clan were in that regiment. However, three were in Dublin Fusiliers, three in the Leinster regiment, and surprisingly Ulster regiments; two in the strangely named Inniskilling (from Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh) regiments and one in the Royal Ulster Rifles. Lastly, there were three in the Irish Guards.

  It’s important to point out that this is not an enumeration of those who served but those who died in the wars.     

  Combat casualties are most often the young and it was so here too. Seventeen had no age recorded on their memorials. Of the balance, nineteen were 29 years of age or younger, seven were between 30 and 39, and four were over 40.

  Most of the graves are in France with a total of twenty-one, eighteen from the first war. Belgium has a similar pattern: seven of eight there are from WW I. Both reflecting the locale of that conflict. Three are in Egypt as a result of Alamein and two in Italy because of the invasion at Anzio. Both were WW II battles. Greece, Iraq, India and Burma hold our graves. Closer to home are graves in Denmark, Scotland and England.

  Surely, one of the most tragic of all tragic losses must be that of Michael John and Patrick O’Beirne of Dublin. They were brothers and the sons of Michael and Fanny O’Beirne of Newfoundland Street, Dublin. Patrick was in the Connaught Rangers and killed in Iraq on March 24, 1916. He was 20 years old. Nine months later, on the 18^th of December, 1916, his brother Michael John was killed while serving in the Leinster regiment in France. He was 19.  

  In between those two dates the Irish rebelled against British rule in the Easter Rising. Much blood would be shed in Ireland over the next five years, Irish soldiers (Connaught Rangers) in British garrisons in India would mutiny in 1920 because of British repression in Ireland, and a “terrible beauty was born,” as Yeats said. But there would be no Irish Republic for Michael John and Patrick O’Beirne to live out their lives in the peace for which they fell.

WHY A 'POPPY' !

    It all began in 1915. Colonel John McCrae, a Canadian Medical Officer, wrote a moving poem called 'In Flanders Fields' during a lull in the Battle of Ypres, immortalizing the Poppy which grew over the graves of those who had been killed in northern France.

    One of the most asked questions is: why poppies? The answer is simple: poppies only flower in rooted up soil. Their seeds can lie on the ground for years and years, and only when someone roots up the ground, they will sprout. There was enough rooted up soil on the battlefield of the Western Front; in fact the whole front consisted of churned up soil. So in May 1915, when McCrae wrote his poem, around him poppies blossomed like no one had ever seen before.

    John McCrae's poem may be the most famous one of the Great War - often only the first two verses are cited or printed. This is not just because of the lack of quality in the third verse, but also because this last verse speaks of an unending quarrel with the foe. And if one thing became clear during the Great War it was this: there was no quarrel between the soldiers (except maybe in the heat of a fight). The quarrel existed only in the minds of some stupid politicians and highranking officers (who mostly never experienced the horror of the battlefield).  

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks still bravely singing fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields

Take up our quarrel with the foe
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields

TOWER HILL MEMORIAL

Debt of Honor Registrar

They Called him the "Junkie Priest"
Surgeon Brian O'Beirne
Kingsly W. O'Beirne
William Mark O'Beirne
Worst Coffin Ships
O'Beirne's & Beirne's W.W. Killed in the First and Second World Wars;