#OnThisDay 1865 The American Civil War drew to a close as General Lee surrendered to General Grant. Roughly 180,000 Irish born men served in this war. The war’s first deaths are two Irish men at Fort Sumter & General Smyth from Cork was the last General to die.
#OnThisDay 1980 Two Irish UN Peacekeepers in Lebanon, Lt. Anthony Bracken &Cpl Michael Jones left their position to crawl under fire to rescue a wounded man & bring him back 200m to safety. For this they were awarded the Military Medal, Ireland’s highest award.
#OnThisDay 1969 James Duffy passed away in his native Donegal. In 1917, Duffy, a stretcher bearer, ran into No-Man’s Land with a comrade to get a wounded soldier. His ally was hit but Duffy continued on&rescued both men. For this he received the Victoria Cross.
#OnThisDay 1921 Two Black and Tans (not in pic) were returning to their barracks outside Macroom, Cork when they were attacked by the IRA. Const. Frederick Lord, from London was hit five times & died. Lord was due to resign three days later& emigrate to Canada.
#OnThisDay 1941 The Belfast Blitz began when the first of four German bombing raids flew over the city. By the end of the fourth raid in May, over 1,100 people were dead, 56,000 houses were damaged, 10,000 made temporarily homeless & £20million in damage.
The Irish at War 