Time to mark our Great War dead

When the new section on Ireland's military dead went online from the In Flander's Fields Museum during the last week, Kilcullen's librarian Julie O'Donoghue tried for information on a grand-uncle, Joseph Keating of Usk, writes Brian Byrne. She found a record for him immediately, with the news that he had been killed on December 5, 1917.

"I knew a little about him, but nobody had ever talked much about it," she says. "Some years ago, letters from him were found in an aunt's papers, but nobody had known what happened to him."

Julie had found Joseph in the census of 1910/1911, aged then around 14, and according to family lore he had gone to London and joined the British Army after the start of WW1. The newly-available records show that he had reached the rank of Lance-Corporal at the time of his death, as a member of the 1st Battalion, Irish Guards.

Now Julie would like to make contact with any other families who might be connected to local men who died as British soldiers in the Great War.

"I had thought of having a mass said for Joseph, and then wondered if maybe we could do something bigger, to commemorate all those who died there from the Kilcullen area."

There are quite a few names on record, which we wrote about on the Diary previously. Now, in the 100th anniversary of the start of that conflict, it might be the time to actually do something about it.

In response to that previous article, Barry Doyle contacted us about four members of his family who had served, two of whom were killed in action.

If anyone else would like to get in touch, we'd be glad to hear from them.