County Donegal in 1914 – 1918 Part 2: World War I

Finner training Camp, Co. Donegal, during World War I. (Donegal County Museum collection)

When war was declared on 4 August 1914, there were already over 25,000 Irishmen serving in the regular British Army with another 30,000 Irishmen in the reserve. As most of the great European powers were drawn into the war, it spread to European colonies all over the world. Men from Donegal found themselves fighting not only in Europe, but also in Egypt and Mesopotamia, as well as in Africa and on ships in the North Sea and in the Mediterranean.

1916 was the worst year of the war, with more soldiers killed in that year than in any other year. By the end of 1916, stalemate on land had truly set in with both sides firmly entrenched on the Western Front. Gone was the belief that the war would be ‘over by Christmas’, and a new understanding of the price to be paid started to emerge.

Recruitment meetings were held all over Co. Donegal. In 1916, the Department of Recruiting in Ireland wrote to Bishop O’Donnell, in Donegal, requesting, ‘. . . that recruiting meetings might with advantage be held outside the Churches . . . after Mass on Sundays and Holidays’.

Men from all communities and from all corners of Donegal enlisted. For many the reasons for enlisting were a combination of unemployment, idealism and adventure. The pay was good compared to other employment and an allowance was paid to the spouse of the soldier while he was away on duty.

Irish chaplains of all denominations, volunteered for service during the War. In January 1916, a Circular was sent to the Bishops of Ireland, requesting their assistance in soliciting Catholic priests to volunteer. Fr. Seán McGlynn, Fr. William MacNeely, Fr. Thomas Molloy, Fr. Hugh Smith, Fr. William Devine, Rev. Dr. Barry Duggan and Fr. John McGlynn were among those who volunteered from the Donegal Diocese.

Fr. Patrick Carr (also known as Canon Kerr) from Fanad, Co. Donegal, who volunteered in 1916, wrote from France, ‘Only those who have been subject to the withering breath of war . . . can catch a glimpse of the true extent of ruin and misery brought about by the ‘Great War’’.

Reverend J. Jackson Wright, a Presbyterian Minister from Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal, served with the 36th (Ulster) Division and was awarded the Military Cross after the Battle of the Somme.

Women also played an important role in the war effort, at home and on the frontlines. They participated in recruiting and staffed volunteer hospitals, and they worked on the front as nurses. Sr. Catherine Black from Ramelton, Co Donegal, was sent to France in 1916, where she nursed shell-shocked soldiers. She wrote, ‘…at night, the cheerful ward became a place of torment, with the occupants of every bed tossing and turning and moaning in the hell of memories let loose’.

In rural areas, women worked to gather sphagnum moss for surgical dressings which were in huge demand. In Dungloe, women could earn up to £2 per week knitting supplies for the war. Members of the Letterkenny based St. Eunan’s Cathedral Guilds working circles made garments for Irish Prisoners of War. The first instalment of Guild work was sent off in January 1916.

Although World War I was fought mainly on land, command of the sea enabled the Allies to transport the vital resources required on the Western Front and elsewhere. On 31 May 1916, the Battle of Jutland took place between the British Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet and the Imperial German Navy’s High Seas Fleet. It was the largest naval battle of the war and the only full-scale clash of battleships.

Lanty Gallagher from Carrickfinn, Co. Donegal, was a Gunner on HMS Lion during the Battle of Jutland. It is reputed that he fired the first shots which began the battle. Ninety-nine men were killed and 51 wounded on HMS Lion including Lanty, who was struck by a piece of shrapnel. He returned home after the war.

Donegal men who were killed at the Battle of Jutland included: Alexander Hamilton, Laghey, Royal Marine Light Infantry, HMS Defence; George Robinson, St. Johnson, Engine Room Artificer, HMS Indefatigable; and John Todd, Rathmullan, Stoker 1st Class, HMS Defence.

Early in the War on the Western Front both sides dug lines of trenches that stretched from the Belgian coast to the border of Switzerland. A Battalion typically served time in the front line trenches, followed by a period spent in support, and then in reserve lines. A short period of rest would follow before the cycle would start again.

Hugh Francis Law, 1st Battalion Irish Guards, from Marble Hill, Co. Donegal, described life in the trenches, ‘…as an endless labour of repairing collapsing ditches, filling sandbags, venturing out under darkness towards enemy lines through barbed wire. The dead were everywhere in no man’s land, and casualties had to be constantly tended to’.

In May 1916, Hugh Law heard news of the Easter Rising in Dublin but reported that, ‘no talk of it or its implications were apparent from his men’.

Soldiers waded through water-filled trenches alive with frogs and covered with red slugs and horned beetles. Rats fed on the multitude of corpses, contaminating food and spreading disease. Lice thrived in the seams of dirty uniforms and carried an infectious disease known as Trench Fever.

The smell in the trenches was a foul combination of rotting corpses, latrines, sweat, creosol and chloride of lime that was used to lessen the risk of infection and to drive away flies. The moist cold subterranean environment gave rise to a new set of ailments including Trench Foot caused by having to stand in wet slime for days and nights.

 The 16th (Irish) Division was subject to a terrible gas attack at Hulluch in Northern France, between 27-29 April (Easter Week), 1916, which resulted in 1,980 casualties. Among those who died were men from Donegal including Michael Doherty, Letterkenny, 26005, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers; Francis Hegarty, Frosses, 17009, Royal Dublin Fusiliers; and John Doherty, Fanad, 14507, Royal Dublin Fusiliers.

For many homes in Donegal, 1916 was remembered as the Year of the Somme. The Battle of the Somme began on 1 July 1916, when at 7:30 a.m., the whistles blew for the soldiers to go over the top. By midnight on that first day over 60,000 British soldiers had been killed, wounded or taken prisoner. Over 80 men from Donegal died on the first day of the Somme.

In the subsequent months, the Battle waged on and more men from Donegal were wounded and killed. Many are remembered on the Thiepval Memorial in France along with 74,000 other soldiers whose bodies were never found.

Private Hugh Mulhern, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, from Baltoney, Gortahork, Co. Donegal, was wounded by a grenade during the Somme. He was rescued from No Man’s Land by his neighbour from Gortahork, who saved his life by carrying him to a Casualty Clearing Station. His right hand was amputated from above the wrist and he lost the first finger from his left hand.

The Battle of the Somme eventually petered out in November 1916. It was a tragedy on a breathtaking scale. British forces lost 420,000 soldiers. The French lost 200,000 and the Germans nearly 500,000.

Private Joseph Andrew Armstrong was born in Ballybofey, Co. Donegal. He enlisted in 1915 with the 54th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force. He was listed as ‘Killed in Action’ on 20 July 1916, during the Battle of the Somme. Later, on 7 December 1916, he was officially reported as a Prisoner of War (POW). In a statement Private Armstrong said:

‘We took part in an action against enemy position at 6 p.m. on 19th July 1916. Our instructions were to take the 2nd line of trenches. We captured the 2nd line. The enemy counter-attacked early next morning and recaptured position and made prisoners of us all. We were all severely wounded and had to be carried off the battlefield on a stretcher. I (Private Armstrong) was lying severely wounded between first and second line of German trenches, when Sgt. Wilson, 53th Batt, came out under heavy fire and assisted me into the first trench. After capture we were taken to a dressing station at Lille and then transferred to Valenciuis where we were all operated upon by a German Doctor. I (Private Armstrong) had 12 pieces of shrapnel taken from different parts of my body’.

(Witness Statement Official Circumstances of Capture, Australian Imperial Forces, December 1918). After the Armistice, Private Armstrong was repatriated to Australia.

For Donegal, and Europe, the war was far from over. For two more years the war dragged on costing millions of more lives. Soon after the end of the war Co. Donegal, along with the rest of Ireland, was pulled into a struggle for independence.

This article is part of a History and Education Pack, ‘County Donegal in 1916: From the Edge’ which was produced by Cultural Services Division, Donegal County Council as part of the Ireland 2016 centenary commemorations.