Cross comes home to Lorrha

A large crowd gathered in the village of Lorrha last Saturday to mark a memorable occasion, the one-day-only display of Martin O'Meara's Victoria Cross in his native parish.

A military guard of honour was formed as the cross, along with O'Meara's British War Medal and Victory Medal, was put on display beside his memorial stone in the village. Those in attendance, among them Australian Ambassador to Ireland Gary Gray, then sat or stood in the hot sunshine and pondered the by now well-known story of O'Meara and the VC he won for bravery during the Battle of the Somme in 1916.

MC for the occasion Damien O'Meara of Dublin, whose family hail from the Pike, Rathcabbin, invited Rose Mannion, Chairperson of the Martin O'Meara VC Committee, to speak on what he described as “a very significant day for the parish”.

Ms Mannion traced the local committee's long campaign to bring O'Meara's Victoria Cross to Lorrha. The greatest honour for gallantry awarded by the British military - and one of only three awarded to north Tipperary soldiers- O'Meara's VC had been on display at the National Museum in Dublin since 2019. Its loan to Ireland required an amendment of Australian legislation.

Hampered by the pandemic, the committee members wondered when or even if their plans to have the cross brought to Lorrha would ever be realised. Ms Mannion thanked everyone involved in making last Saturday's occasion happen. She said the cross would be returning to the Army Museum of Western Australia after the local display. A replica VC is to be put on show in the community hall. Ms Mannion invited those gathered to spend some time in Lorrha, visiting the village's historical sites and the SCEAL shop or Friars Tavern.

REMEMBERING THE FALLEN

Michael Dolan, of O'Meara's Lissernane birthplace and captain of the Lorrha intermediate hurling team that recently won the North Tipp Intermediate Championship, read out the names of men from Lorrha and Dorrha, or whose family came from the parish, who died in the First World War.

They included Lieutenant Colonel George Butler Stoney of Hampshire; Second Lieutenant James Vernon Yates Willington, St Kieran's, Rathcabbin; Lance Corporal George Johnston Byrne of Portland, Lorrha and Gisborne, New Zealand; Private Michael Francis Donahoo of Melbourne, Australia; Private Patrick (O')Houlihan, Abbeyville, Lorrha and Perth, Western Australia; Private Thomas Houlihan of Abbeyville, Lorrha and Te Kuiti, New Zealand.

Michelle Hogan, Principal of Redwood National School - which was built with the help of money that Martin O'Meara left to his parish - read out the Francis Ledwidge poem ‘A Soldier's Grave’. Darran Bourke of Lehinch, Lorrha, then sang ‘The Green Fields of France (No Man's Land)’.

Ceri McGrath recited a poem by Tom Kettle, whose housekeeper was Maryann Hogan (née O'Meara) of Lissgadda, Lorrha. The poem - ‘To My Daughter, the Gift of God’ - was written by Kettle before he was killed at the front in 1916. Mary Stephens (née O'Meara, also of Lissernane), read out the citation for the award of the Victoria Cross to Martin O'Meara.

Pauline Hoctor of Sharragh (beside Lissernane) remembered other Lorrha soldiers that served with the ANZAC during the war. They included Corporal Thomas Byrne and Corporal Richard Byrne, both of Portland, Lorrha and Gisborne, New Zealand; Lieutenant Cornelius Aloysius ‘Con’ Deane of Wahring, Victoria; Private Daniel Donahoo of Melbourne; Captain Frank Edward De Groot of Dublin and Sydney; Gunner Michael O'Meara of Ross, Rathcabbin; Lieutenant Donald Charles of Melbourne.

Corporal Emmet Donlan of the Defence Forces played ‘The Last Post’ and ‘Reveille’ on bugle, after which Ambassador Gray laid the first of a series of wreaths at the memorial, his on behalf of the people of Australia. Among the others, Joe Dolan, Lord Mayor of Lorrha and member of the Martin O'Meara VC Committee, laid a wreath on behalf of the people of Lorrha and Dorrha. Ruairí Deasy, grandnephew of Major General Sir William Bernard Hickie of Terryglass, who commanded the 16th Irish Division in the war, laid a wreath on behalf of the Hickie family, while Noreen O'Meara and Fiona Flower, grandnieces of Martin O'Meara VC, laid a wreath on behalf of the O'Meara family.

Committee members Ger O'Meara and Martina Neeham recited the ‘Ode of Remembrance’, after which William Holmes - a winner at the recent Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in Mullingar - played the ‘Piper's Lament’.

TRAGIC HERO

Proceedings then moved to the grounds of St Ruadhán's Church where, under the ruins of the Dominican Abbey, Fr Tom O'Halloran, Rev Arthur Minnion, Fr Pat Cooney and Fr Pat Deely joined in an ecumenical service. The service included an offertory procession, in which students of Redwood school brought up the school roll book. Donnacha O'Meara of Lissernane brought up a hurley recovered from Martin O'Meara's home. Local artist Ute Duggan, whose grandfathers served in the German army during the war, carried her portrait of Martin O'Meara.

Pauline McIntyre and her students of Lorrha NS brought books associated with O'Meara, while Fiona Flower brought the war hero's other medals.

Finally, Ambassador Gray brought forward O'Meara's Victoria Cross. The ambassador also unveiled a plaque dedicated to the local war hero.

Perhaps the most poignant part of the occasion came at the end when author Seamus King summarised the life of Martin O'Meara. As the sun beat down on the abbey backdrop, Mr King spoke of how the “modest and unassuming man” emigrated to Australia in 1911, enlisted and fought in the war, receiving the Victoria Cross for rescuing at least 20 comrades from No Man's Land on the battlefields of France.

Promoted to sergeant, O'Meara was wounded three times during the war. He returned to his native Lorrha to recuperate in 1916 and again in 1917. Mr King told of how the war hero received a very different reception on both occasions with the change in attitudes to those who fought under a British flag. O'Meara left feeling “unwelcome” in his home parish. He spent the last 16 years of his life in hospital in Australia, suffering from the psychological trauma that the war had caused him. He died at the age of 50.

Mr King said O'Meara's heroic deeds had been “forgotten about and frowned upon” at home, but thankfully this attitude changed in the last decade or so. It was fitting, he said, for O'Meara to be honoured in his home parish, even if only briefly.

More photos from this event in this week's and next week's Guardian newspaper