Galway’s ‘lost generation’

Date Published: 06-Nov-2007

MORE THAN 1,500 Galwegians packed into Galway Cathedral on Saturday for an ecumenical remembrance service to honour for the first time ever the Galway servicemen who lost their lives on the battlefields of the Somme, Ypres and Gallipoli during the Great
War 1914-1918.

There was a huge outpouring of grief at the emotional service, as scores of those in attendance were overcome by the occasion and openly wept in memory of the Galway soldiers and sailors killed during the First World War.

Most sources indicate that between 112,000 and 150,000 Irishmen fought in the Great War but this could be a conservative estimate according to Mervue historian and author of Galway’s Great War Memorial Book 1914 –1918, William Henry, who contends that the figure is likely to be as high as 300,000.

In all, 1,108 Galway soldiers and sailors were among the 49,400 Irishmen who never returned from the battlefields of Europe — many of whom were duped into joining the war effort in return for Home Rule in Ireland.

“This generation of……..