Ireland's Military Story

Category: Anglo Irish War

  • Centenary Ceremony Held at Baldonnel Aerodrome

    Centenary Ceremony Held at Baldonnel Aerodrome

    Centenary Ceremony Held at Baldonnel Aerodrome

    Photos courtesy of Defence Froces Press Office

    Earlier today a centenary ceremony to mark the handover from the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1922, was held at the home of the Irish Air Corps, Casement Aerodrome, Baldonnel, Dublin. The Defence Forces Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Seán Clancy, the General Officer Commanding Air Corps, Brigadier General Rory O’Connor and over 1,000 serving and former members of the Air Corps attended the ceremony.

    The ceremony involved a representative body of Air Corps personnel symbolically marching through the original main gate at 12.00pm. A wreath was laid to commemorate all those who died in service throughout the century followed by the raising of the National Colours and a ceremonial flypast.

    Speaking at the event General Officer Commanding Air Corps, Brigadier General Rory O’Connor remembered those who came before “Irish forces marched in and took over the Camp on 3 May 1922 and since that day, Baldonnel has been the home of the Air Corps. The dedication of Air Corps personnel, the missions completed, and the lives saved, have come about through the people who have walked through these gates and gave their years’ of service, most of which can be counted in decades.”
    He Continued “Looking back to what Baldonnel was like 100yrs ago, I have no doubt that those early members of the Air Corps would be very proud of the organisation that the Air Corps has become, and of all that it has achieved over the course of its first 100 years”.

  • President Lays Wreath Commemorating Bloody Sunday

    President Lays Wreath Commemorating Bloody Sunday

    President Lays Wreath Commemorating Bloody Sunday

    Yesterday evening, at the invitation of the GAA, President Michael D. Higgins laid a wreath in Croke Park to commemorate the death of 14 people killed while attending a football match between Dublin and Tipperary on 21 November 1920.

    President Higgins laying a wreath at Croke Park yesterday evening. (Photo: Stephen McCarthy Sportsfile)

    Speaking about the event, President Higgins said:

    “At the close of that day of such killing and injury 100 years ago, 32 people, three of them children, lay dead or dying in Dublin. Countless others were wounded, many with their lives irrevocably changed as a result of the events of the day. More death and heartbreak was to follow.

    While details of these events and the context in which they occurred had initially been hidden, even denied, over the intervening period they continued to be contested, obscured or selectively recalled for various purposes. We recall today those lost and those who suffered with a sense of profound sadness and outrage even, but also as a reminder of the fragility of the hard-earned peace to which we have become accustomed and the consequences that flow from the abuse of power and the failure of diplomacy and politics.

    That the events that took place can, in their brutality and casualness to the taking of life, still shock and challenge us all is to be understood. People from different backgrounds on the island may reflect on Bloody Sunday in different ways. We must respect this and be open to differing perspectives, and encourage a hospitality for these differing narratives of the events of that day. For all of us, to avoid becoming captives of any frozen version of the events of our past, we must find the courage to remember painful events with honesty. Doing this can only assist us in taking responsibility for the present and our shared, peaceful future together.”