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#OnThisDay 1863 The Irish Brigade fought at the Battle of Gettysburg. Lead by Galway born Colonel Patrick Kelly, the already much depleted brigade lost 198 of 532 troops engaged, or 37% of total soldiers, but still held their ground at the Wheatfield.

The Irish Brigade’s numbers had been withered down during the Battle of Fredericksburg and though Gen. T.F. Meagher had requested to recruit the brigade back to strength but it was denied. Again following more casualties at Chancellorsville, the Brigade lost more men and Meagher’s requests to leave to recruit and bolsters the Brigade’s numbers was again denied and so resigned his commission. Therefore by the time the Irish Brigade got to Gettysburg, it was hardly the size of a regiment, let alone a brigade.

#OnThisDay 1798 the leader of the Wexford rebels, Fr Murphy was captured in Carlow, then brought to Tullow to be court-martialled. Found guilty he was stripped, flogged, hanged, decapitated, his corpse burnt in a barrel of tar & his head impaled on a spike. This was meant to be a warning to all others who fought against the British Crown.

#OnThisDay 1916 At the Battle of the Somme, the three Donaldson brothers from Comber, Co. Down, went over the top. Serving with B Company 13th Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles, all three brothers, John, James & Samuel were killed in action. They have no known grave.

“Prior to the outbreak of the Great War John and James Donaldson both worked in the shipyard at Queen’s Island Belfast.  Samuel Donaldson worked in Andrew’s Mill in Comber.  They were all members of the Ulster Volunteer Force and the three brothers enlisted together in Comber where they were allocated consecutive battalion numbers.  They served in ‘B’ Company 13th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles (1st County Down Volunteers) in 108th Brigade of the 36th (Ulster) Division and the three brothers fought and died side by side on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

Initially there was uncertainty about the fate of the three brothers and they were posted as missing in action.

At home the Donaldson family feared the worst and this accentuated a decline in the health of John Donaldson Senior who died of heart failure on Sunday 1 October 1916 (aged 56).

In the 7 October 1916 edition of the Newtownards Chronicle it was reported that James Donaldson was being held as a Prisoner-of-War and that John and Samuel had been killed.

In August 1917 the widowed Mary Donaldson was officially informed that her three sons, Riflemen James, John and Samuel Donaldson, had all been killed in action on 1 July 1916 and she placed a For King and Country notice in the 25 August 1917 edition of the Newtownards Chronicle.”

#OnThisDay 1916 The 36th Ulster Division went over the top at the Battle of the Somme. The fighting was described by one soldier as ‘a Belfast riot on the top of Mount Vesuvius‘. The 36th held the Schwaben Redoubt until nightfall but at a very heavy cost, the division suffering in two days of fighting 5,500 officers and enlisted men killed, wounded or missing.

Philip Gibbs said of the Division, “Their attack was one of the finest displays of human courage in the world”.

Of nine Victoria Crosses given to British forces in the battle, four were awarded to 36th Division soldiers.

#OnThisDay 1897 Tom Barry was born in Killorglin, Kerry. A soldier in WW1, Barry went on to become one of the most successful IRA commanders during the War of Independence, leading the 3rd West Cork Brigade to such victories as Kilmichael & Crossbarry.