#OnThisDay 1918 US Marine John Joseph Kelly won his second Medal of Honor at Blanc Mont Ridge.
His citation reads: ‘Private Kelly ran through our own barrage one hundred yards in advance of the front line and attacked an enemy machine-gun nest, killing the gunner with a grenade, shooting another member of the crew with his pistol and returned through the barrage with eight prisoners’.
Kelly was the last surviving double Medal of Honor recipient before his death in 1957.
#OnThisDay 1915 George Hackney & the Royal Irish Rifles departed for France. Hackney was an amateur photographer & took many shots of the ordinary soldier’s life during the war. Here he is in the barn they were billeted before heading to the front. He had been promoted to Lance Corporal the day before departure.
#OnThisDay 1691 The Treaty of Limerick was signed ending the Williamite war in Ireland but the “ink wasn’t dry” before the English reneged on their promises of religious equality. 14,000 soldiers left Ireland for the armies of Europe, known as the Wild Geese. #Ireland #History
#OnThisDay 1833 The Rev. William Corby was born in Detroit. Corby was chaplain to the Irish Brigade during the American Civil War, famously giving them absolution before the Battle of Gettysburg. Corby later became president twice of
#OnThisDay 1600 O’Neill men engage Mountjoy’s forces at Moyry Pass. The battle would last a number of days and would see more English than Irish perish. The result was indecisive as Mountjoy later took the pass but at a great cost. For more see
The Irish at War 