A hands-on experience at Collins Barracks helped bring to life the stories of the 200,000 Irish involved in the first World War
IF YOU ever fancied handling an 18-pounder field gun, building a biplane or taking part in a recruitment re-enactment for the first World War, then Collins Barracks was the place to be at the weekend.
The decorative arts and history museum held its inaugural World War I Day and, judging by the harried faces at the information desk, there was plenty of interest from the public. Several talks were booked up in advance and the museum estimated that up to 1,000 people visited the displays.
Lar Joye's demonstration of the Ordnance QF 18-pounder field gun was so popular that he had to repeat it all a few hours later.
Children are particularly interested in the big gun. "Kids are very practical and will want to know things like, how did we get the gun in the door of the museum? The simple answer is, with great difficulty," said Mr Joye.
Ciarán Harford (15) had brought his parents along from Balbriggan and was waiting patiently for the demonstration. "He's military mad," explained his mother Mary. "As soon as he heard about this, we were booked in for the day." Her husband Kilian didn't really have to be dragged along as he is a keen historian and member of the Irish Titanic Historical Society. "I'm just the mammy tagging along," she admitted. "But even for someone like me it's very good and it would get you interested."
The talks and activities were aimed at families and people with little knowledge of the war, said the museum's assistant education officer Siobhán Pierce.
"We're delighted there's so much interest," she said. "We've seen a renewal of interest in history, particularly in family history, as people are finding out more on the internet.
"There were about 200,000 Irish involved in World War I, so many people find that they have some sort of a relation who was in the war."
She delivered a talk on the poet Tom Kettle and found that several of his relatives were in the audience. They included Carmel Caulfield from Trim and Mary McCourt-Watson from Swords.
Like all family historians, they were deep in discussion over first cousins once removed and grand uncles on the mother's side.
Carmel Caulfield said it was good to see the Irish who fought in the war being remembered at such events. "There was definitely a stigma there but that's all changing now. It was disgraceful, the way they were forgotten," she said.
Tom Kettle's medals have just gone on display at the museum.
He died in September 1916 at Ginchy in the battle of the Somme, not long after he penned the sonnet To My Daughter Betty, The Gift Of God.
Another speaker, Damian Shiels, remembered other Irish tragedies in his talk about the war. They included the story of Dubliner John McLoughlin who joined the British army when he was 16, after lying about his age.
He was shot in the spine at the Somme and spent two years in hospital before dying at the age of 19.
Bernie McFeely's father was luckier. William McLoughlin from Cloone, Co Leitrim, joined the army in 1900, fought at Flanders with the Connaught Rangers and returned home in 1922.
She was at the museum to remember her father and find out more about the war. "He never talked about the war afterwards," she recalled. "I think he found it hard to get work when he came home. He talked about India all right but I never remember him telling us about the world war. He was a quiet man."
