FROM THE ARCHIVES:A year after the start of the first World War there were daily British army recruiting meetings around the country, like this one at Stillorgan, Co Dublin. – JOE JOYCE
A DRAMATIC incident occurred at a meeting held in Stillorgan village yesterday by the City and Co. of Dublin Recruiting Committee. Corporal Whelan, 12th Lancers, a native of Stillorgan, who has been twice wounded, had related how C Squadron (150 men) of his regiment had charged and broken 600 of the Death’s Head Hussars in August, 1914, and called for recruits. With a shout of “Here’s the first one,” there came forward a man whom the villagers recognised as Whelan’s father. As the two stood side by side on the platform, the crowd cheered.
Before the meeting commenced a letter was read from Rev. Richard Duggan, P.P., Dundrum, who stated that it was not his custom to appear on a public platform. He wrote as follows: – “I most heartily sympathise with the object of your meeting, and I wish it all success. Certainly, read my letter, and add – that every Irishman who helps to put down this monster may expect his reward hereafter. The Irish patriot should recognise the avowed enemy of every small nationality and help to destroy him. The man who with “culture” upon his lips burned the famous University of Louvain and its invaluable library, where Irish priests were trained, should be known as a hypocrite; the man who murdered our priests and our nuns, and who, with God upon his lips – my great Ally above – a shocking blasphemy – destroys cathedrals and tramples upon religion, a man who, in my opinion, has inherited the ancestral taint of lunacy, and can never fulfil the prophecy that other rogue, Bismarck, made –‘A day will come when Germany will dominate Europe’.” The reading was received with cheers.
Mr. Charles St. G. Orpen, who presided, said that Stillorgan had done magnificently. They wanted to fill Irish regiments with Irishmen. Did they want to hold off conscription? If so, the only way to do so was to crush once and for all German militarism. If they had a patched-up peace, Germany would start to prepare for the next war. It was the duty of Irishmen to uphold small nations and the liberty of the world. (Applause).
Captain Frank Crozier, Royal Irish Fusiliers, who has returned wounded from the Dardanelles, said that he was proud to have joined the Army. Speaking of the fighting at Suvla Bay, Captain Crozier said that he saw one Irishman taking off his clothes on the beach. When asked whether he was going to bathe, he said, “It is something tickling my back.” The something was a big wound, but the man fought another two days before a bullet in the leg made it imperative for him to go to hospital. He had heard a lot about Ireland for the Irish, but there was a better cry in “Irish regiments for the Irish”. There were big gaps to be filled, and he wanted the men of Stillorgan and Foxrock to come back with him and carry rifles. They would never regret it. (Cheers).
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