Fermanagh Times August 5th, 1915. WAR NEWS. Nearly half a million sterling is said to represent the loss of wages in Wales on account of the strike, and the other losses would also amount to a considerable sum, to say nothing of the loss of the output of a million tons of coal. It would take a long period of increased wages to compensate the men for their immediate loss. But they never seem to think of that.
It is wonderful how this old country manages to boggle and blunder through. Its authorities seldom prepare for any eventuality or exhibit much foresight, so that we begin wars and other things under great disadvantages. It transpired at a meeting of the Marconi Company that in 1910 the company proposed to the Government a chain of wireless stations throughout the British possessions, but it was rejected. The Germans took up the idea and carried it out, with the result that some days before the war they were able to warn their ships to make for neutral ports.
As for the stoppage of cotton imports into Germany, the facts are now notorious. After 12 months of war and a change of Government our Ministers have not yet proclaimed the chief ingredient of the German and Austrian powers contraband (or subject to seizure by the Allies cruisers). They have proclaimed wool, oil, machine tools and large scale maps contraband, but not this stuff with which Germany kills our men and their comrades among the Allies. Nothing in the whole history of this war is so inexplicable.
Fermanagh Times August 5th, 1915. THE MAN WHO SANK THE LUSITANIA. CONFESSION BY THE U21’S COMMANDER. “The order to sink the Lusitania arrived on May 2 at Heligoland and, and aroused the indignation of all the officers. More than one was beside himself. The order was nevertheless carried out by the U21, which left under the command of Lieutenant von Hersing. The writer of the letter was on board his ship when Von Hersing returned from his expedition and was able to take note of the contempt which all the officers manifested towards him. Without daring to lift his head he muttered: – “It went against me to act as I did, but I could not do otherwise. “ He was weeping. He then told how none of his men knew the object of his voyage, and has several times he was on the point of letting them into the secret in the hope of seeing the crew mutiny. On its arrival at the spot where it was to surprise the Lusitania, the submarine had a long wait. At one moment the idea of making off enter the commander’s head, but he found that another submarine had stopped a short distance away. The Lusitania meanwhile was approaching. She could not escape her doom. “I saw people gathered on deck” continued Von Hersing, “the ship was crammed with human beings. I caused the submarine to plunge and the torpedo was discharged. I do not know whether it was this torpedo or the one discharged by the other submarine that struck the liner, but the latter’s hull was ripped open. I had tried to avoid witnessing the ghastly scene which followed, and made away from the torpedoed liner at full speed. Then I came to the surface. The sea was crowded with struggling wretches, and even at that distance I could hear the shouts of the drowning. I had become a man of stone, incapable of moving or giving an order.”
Fermanagh Times August 5th, 1915. BALLYSHANNON VICTIM IN THE LUSITANIA. A PROBATE APPLICATION. In the matter of the goods of Michael Ward, deceased an application was made in the Probate Court, Dublin on behalf of Mrs. Margaret Ward, Greenhall, Ballyshannon, mother of the deceased, for liberty to state death on belief and to obtain letters of administration. It appeared that Michael Ward had emigrated to America many years ago, and up to April last had resided in Pittsburgh. Having amassed a small fortune there, he decided to return to Ireland. He had purchased a farm near Ballyshannon last year. He sailed from New York in the Lusitania, and when the vessel was torpedoed he was seen helping women and children into the boats, and he undoubtedly sacrificed his life in saving others. Mr. Justice Madden said it was clear beyond doubt that the deceased was another victim of the outrage. It was, indeed, a sad case. He would grant the application.
Impartial Reporter. August 5th 1915. A WOUNDED INNISKILLING BACK FROM THE FRONT. Private Maguire of the 2nd Inniskillings who was wounded on the retreat from Mons has reached the military hospital at Enniskillen for care. His brother Francis, also in the 2nd Inniskillings was killed in the war and the wounded soldier at the old Redoubt had a narrow escape as a shrapnel bullet tore one shoulder while another bullet tore the other shoulder, as he lay with his comrades in a turnip field on the defence. He tells how he became unconscious and was found by the stretcher parties and conveyed for first aid before he was sent to the base. The bullets were probed for and extracted; the parts were burned to guard against blood poisoning and gradually consciousness returned to the parts affected. Maguire was for some time at Rouen in the hospital in which Miss Stuart of Enniskillen was the sister in the operating theatre; he was subsequently transferred to Brighton where local ladies took convalescent soldiers out in their cars for an airing and he liked the place well. He has nothing but praise for the care he received at the Redoubt. He says he is not in want of anything.
Maguire is confined to bed with pains perhaps from rheumatism contracted during some nights of exposure; but he is near Lisnaskea, and hopes to have friends from home as visitors on the fair and other days. He had a year’s boy service in the old militia in which he served for six years and then entered the line battalions and served abroad for 11 years in both the 1st and 2nd battalion.
Impartial Reporter. August 5th 1915. COMFORTS FOR INNISKILLINGS. I had several gross of fly papers dispatched to the 1st, 5th and 6th battalions of the Inniskillings last week to the Dardanelles where the fly nuisance is described as unbearable. Severe as the strain is for myriad of flies to light on one’s food and ones face, so that even much desired sleep became a time for torture, it is worse for the wounded. Many years ago when I was at Montreal I had a very mild experience of what our men have to endure at the Dardanelles in this respect so that I had to leave my food almost untasted. The flies were in droves on the dinner plate, on the knife and fork, on my face, and the only way to obtain relief was to flee. But our men cannot fly; they must endure. (W. C. Trimble)
Impartial Reporter. August 5th 1915. YOUTHS OF 19 CALLED UP. ABOUT 1,200,000 MORE RUSSIANS FOR THE COLOURS. An imperial ukase has been issued calling to the colours all men born in 1896 i.e. youths of 19 of whom there are about 1,200,000. The lowest age at which Russians have been called up hitherto is 20.
Impartial Reporter. August 5th 1915. NEXT SUNDAY A DAY OF INTERSESSION. The Archbishops and Bishops of the Church of Ireland have appointed Sunday, August 8 to be observed throughout our church as a day of prayer and supplication for our church and country. The cruel war forced on the world by German perfidy and greed will have lasted for 12 months during which time blood and treasure have been freely poured forth that the nation may live. Our own Church is the poorer for the loss of hundreds of our most gallant sons and is the richer for their noble faithfulness and for the example of their unselfish sacrifice.
Impartial Reporter. August 5th 1915. AN INNISKILLING RECOMMENDED FOR THE VICTORIA CROSS. We are unofficially informed that Sergeant Somers of the 1st Inniskillings, at the Dardanelles has been recommended for the Victoria Cross.
Impartial Reporter. August 5th 1915. THE DEATH OF LIEUTENANT COLONEL JONES AT GALLIPOLI. He was severely wounded by a shrapnel shell while sitting writing out orders. It struck him in the thigh and part of the abdomen. An immediate operation was found necessary and he survived the ordeal. He was sent to Alexandria but while on the journey complications arose which necessitated a second operation from which he never regained consciousness and he passed away before the boat arrived at Alexandria. His body was buried at sea.
Impartial Reporter. August 5th 1915. ARIGNA MINING. PAST AND FUTURE. A question and reply was recently given in the House of Commons relative to the Arigna Mining Company. The district abounds in coal of good quality and is rich in ore, fireclay and other valuable minerals. Some 80 years ago a large Company was formed to work the coal and iron and extensive smelting works where the most excellent iron ware including rails grates, mantle registers, pots etc. were manufactured. After working with a fair measure of success for some years in those days in which rail communication was entirely absent, the company, owing to intrigue and fraud in which one gentleman lost £80,000 and culminated in the shooting of the manager, the iron works closed down, and today the great and extensive ironworks are a heap of ruins. From time to time small companies were established to work to coal which was so much needed in the locality but each company failed after a short existence.
Fermanagh Herald August 7th 1915. JOTTINGS. The 8th Inniskillings 10th Irish Division arrived in Enniskillen on Monday night by special train.
Mrs. Bussell, of Tooliss, Lisnaskea he, has been notified by the Canadian Record Office that her son, Private Frank Bussell (27778), F. Company 15th Battalion, 48th Highlanders, 1st Canadian Contingent, has been missing since the battle of Ypres.
Fermanagh Herald August 7th 1915. A LIQUID FIRE FIGHT IS DESCRIBED BY MR. PHILIP GIBBS, the special correspondent of the Daily Chronicle in a telegram dated July 31. For the first time, he says the British troops have had to face the ordeal of liquid fire squirted upon them by an enemy which has adopted every diabolical means to gain a temporary success.
They have gained something, it is true – 500 yards of trenches which we had previously held at Hooge –but they lose still more by a further slur upon their name as fighting men. It will be remembered that we destroyed a German redoubt of considerable size and strength to the North of the Menin road by a successful mine explosion. Infuriated by this, the enemy has been furiously shelling our trenches, and using every form of bomb and shell. He began with a heavy cannonade against our trenches, and hurled large numbers of bombs from trench mortars, damaging part of our trenches, but not dislodging the men. During a lull however, says Mr. Gibbs, the new horror made its appearance. A flame – either of gas or liquid fire – was projected upon our advanced trenches.
Our men were taken by surprise at this new means of destruction; but in spite of the shock many leapt to their feet firing repeatedly at the flames. Finally the trenches reached by the burning jets became untenable and the men were compelled to fall back.
Fermanagh Times August 12th, 1915. BOOTS FOR WINTER WARFARE. The Army Clothing Department is said to be engaged in the production of a new boot designed to meet the special necessities of winter wear. The terrible ordeal of our men in the trenches last winter has set the experts thinking out designs of boots which will afford an altogether better protection to the leg than puttees gave under war conditions. It must be remembered that the puttee was intended more especially for wear in tropical countries, where it was, indeed, found to give excellent protection against the bites of snakes and insects, but in the trenches puttees held the damp and contributed to frostbite. Hence our soldiers demand for leggings to replace the puttees, the comfort and support of which they had appreciated so much before going into the flooded trenches.
But what became of that eager young chemist, Fritz Haber, whose table-top experiment first solved the world’s nitrogen crisis? A fervent German nationalist, he not only helped, as we have seen, supply Germany with explosives during World War One- he went on to develop chemical weapons. This was too much for his wife, Clara, herself a chemist. Just after his new poison gases were first put to work in the trenches, she took his service revolver and shot herself. Fritz left the very next morning to oversee the gas’s use on the Eastern Front. The Nobel Prize judges weren’t as critical of his wartime work as his wife. In 1918 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work on nitrogen. And after the war, he used his know-how to develop pesticides – including that notorious group of nitrogen-based toxins, the cyanides. His work then came to an abrupt end in 1933. Although he had converted to Lutheranism, Fritz Haber had been born Jewish, and as far as the Nazis were concerned he had no place in the new Reich. He fled to England, only to be rejected by his fellow chemists because of his wartime record. A year later he headed for Israel, but died of a heart attack en route. And perhaps it was for the best. Had he lived, Fritz Haber would have seen most of his extended family in Germany wiped out by Zyklon B, a poison gas whose development he had overseen, and whose manufacture depended on the process of nitrogen fixation that he had pioneered.
Fermanagh Times August 12th, 1915. A RECRUITING MEETING IN LISNASKEA. A recruiting party composed of a number of officers and men accompanied by the band of the eighth Inniskilling Fusiliers now stationed in Enniskillen visited Lisnaskea on Saturday, the fair day when an open air meeting was held in the centre of the town and was attended by a fairly large crowd. Rev. R. C. Lapham presided and delivered a brief but incisive address in an appeal for men to join the colours. Rev. Father Benedict, who is on a visit to the district, and who described himself as a London Irish Catholic priest, also made a strong appeal “so that Fermanagh should take its rightful place in the Irish Brigade”. Major Johnston also spoke and mentioned that they had obtained 40 recruits in Enniskillen last week.
Impartial Reporter. August 12th 1915. ANOTHER PERSON KEPT THE FLEET TOGETHER. The well-known naval expert Mr. F. T. Jane, disputes the claim that has been put forward on behalf of Mr. Winston Churchill that before the outbreak of war he did a great service to the nation by keeping the Fleet together ready for action instead of allowing its demobilisation after the manoeuvres and that he achieved this bold stroke of policy on his own responsibility. Mr. Jane says no one expected war, and Mr. Churchill was he believes week ending with his wife at Cromer on the East Coast – Cromer which years ago give birth to “The Garden of Sleep”. It was all “The garden of sleep.” No one, adds Mr. Jane’, worried except one man and that man was the First Sea Lord of those days – Admiral Prince Louis of Battenberg. He is the one who kept the fleet together and saved them from the horrors of Belgium. Prince Louis of Battenberg it may be recalled was driven into retirement from the post of First Sea Lord in response to clamour from the sensational press on the ostensible grounds of his family association with Germany. Mr. Jane asserts that Prince Louis is half Russian and the other half just exactly as much French as he is German. In well informed circles however it may be added that it has been asserted that the reasons why Prince Louis continuance at the Admiralty was objectionable to certain influential wire-pullers behind the scenes was concerned with acute political developments shortly before the war.
(From Norfolkcoast.co.uk) THE GARDEN OF SLEEP. The drama critic of the Daily Telegraph and the Morning Post Clement Scott arrived in Norfolk in August 1883. Unable to find himself accommodation he was put up in the Miller’s House in Sidestrand. He was so taken with the area that he wrote a number of articles in the newspapers expounding the virtues of Norfolk, which eventually resulted in Cromer and the surrounding area becoming a fashionable place for holidays for the rich and famous. He named his articles and, subsequent book Poppy-land. The book was dedicated to the Miller’s daughter.
The term Poppy-Land was due to the vast quantities of poppies which grew in, and around, the area which he so loved. One of his favourite places and for which he wrote a poem entitled ‘The Garden of Sleep’, was the church tower of St. Michael and All Angels at Sidestrand.
The church and churchyard stood right on the cliffs and as the land around it was gradually eroded the locals decided to re-locate their community church further inland. They dismantled the church stone by stone and rebuilt it on its current site. However, they left the church tower on the cliffs and also the old graveyard. Every New Year’s Eve for 15 years Scott walked along Tower Lane to the old church tower and churchyard and spent the last few moments of the old year on the cliffs in the place he called his Garden of Sleep.
As the sea continued to claim the land, the locals had the disconcerting sight of seeing the coffins and the remains of those who had been buried in the church since the 15th Century, tumbling one by one, piece by piece into the crashing waves below. Clement Scott died in 1904 and some say that in later life he regretted that he had made Norfolk famous and that he commented that it was no longer the lovely rural landscape he had first visited in 1883.
The Church tower eventually fell over the cliffs in 1915/16, though its image continued to be used on postcards right up to the 1930’s.The new church St. Michael and All Angels at Sidestrand used the headstones from the old churchyard to line the wall by the road.
The Garden of Sleep by Clement Scott
On the grass of the cliff, at the edge of the steep,
God planted a garden – a garden of sleep!
‘Neath the blue of the sky, in the green of the corn,
It is there that the regal red poppies are born!
Brief days of desire, and long dreams of delight,
They are mine when my Poppy-Land cometh in sight.
In music of distance, with eyes that are wet,
it is there I remember, and there I forget!
0! heart of my heart! Where the poppies are born,
I am waiting for thee, in the hush of the corn.
Sleep! Sleep!
From the Cliff to the Deep!
Sleep, my Poppy-Land,
Sleep!
In my garden of sleep, where red poppies are spread,
I wait for the living, along with the dead!
For a tower in ruins stands guard o’er the deep,
At whose feet are green graves of dear women asleep!
Did they love as I love, when they lived by the sea?
Did they wait, as I wait, for the days that may be?
Was it hope or fulfilling that entered each breast,
Ere death gave release, and the poppies gave rest?
0! Life of my life! On the cliffs by the sea,
By the graves in the grass, I am waiting for thee! Sleep! Sleep!
In the dews by the deep!
Sleep, my Poppy-Land,
Sleep!
Fermanagh Herald August 14th 1915. NEWS HAS JUST BEEN RECEIVED from the War Office by ex-Sergeant Wilkinson, R.I.C., that his younger son, Bernard Joseph has been killed in action in France on the 22nd of July when serving with his regiment the 2nd Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. Deceased was only 20 years of age, and had only been at the front a few months. He was one of three sons serving with the colours. One of them fought under General Botha in German South West Africa. We deeply sympathise with his parents in their sad bereavement.
Fermanagh Times August 19th, 1915. SMITH EXECUTED. MURDERER PROTESTS HIS INNOCENCE TO THE LAST. George Joseph Smith, the murderer in the Brides in the Baths case, paid the penalty of his crime with his life on Friday morning. Up to the very last he protested his innocence. He wrote several letters from Pentonville and Maidstone Prisons, and, robbed of their very extensive verbiage, his cry off “I am an innocent man his repeated through every epistle.” His last letter was written to Miss Pegler, “the woman to whom he always returned.” He left his property to her.
Fermanagh Times August 19th, 1915. ESCAPED GERMAN PRISONERS CAUGHT STAYING IN A HOTEL IN CAVAN. Two German officers who made their escape from the Oldcastle Internment Camp on Wednesday night were arrested at Cavan on Friday. They engaged rooms in the Farnham Hotel, where they stopped for the night. One of the officers, Carol Morlang, who was disguises a clergyman, was arrested by Constable Goldrick in the hotel, the other, Alfans Griem, being detained on the Railway Road while on his way, presumably to the station. Immediately after their escape being discovered their description was circulated all over the countryside, and the police and military authorities were on the lookout for anyone answering their description. It is stated that they affected their escape about 12.00 on Wednesday night through the wire around the camp, and having previously obtained the clothing which they wore as a disguise, threw their own attire away on escaping.
Fermanagh Times August 19th, 1915. OBSTRUCTING RECRUITING. A CASE AT MANORHAMILTON. At a special court of petty sessions James Kerrigan of Drummonds was brought up in custody charged that he obstructed, molested and hindered Captain John O’Donnell, D. L., His Majesties recruiting officer, in the discharge of his duty. Constable John Rogers deposed that the accused was present at a recruiting meeting, and endeavoured to interrupt Captain O’Donnell. Accused said – “We have nothing to thank England for, remember O’Donovan Rossa, you are an idiot, a blithering idiot.” Accused on cross examination said that he did not use the words charged against him. Captain O’Donnell deposed that when he was speaking there were shouts of “shut up you idiot.” Witness denied he was an idiot, and said if he was, God help the rest of them. He found the crowd very hostile. As a matter of fact he did not get a single recruit until 8.30 that evening. The court imposed a fine of one guinea and two shillings and six pence costs or in default of payment five weeks in prison with hard labour. The accused intimated his intention of appealing, but subsequently paid the fine.
Fermanagh Times August 19th, 1915. BELLEEK DISTRICT COUNCIL. A meeting of the above council held on Saturday, at which the chairman, Mr. P. Scott, J. P. presided. The Council decided, after some discussion, the rent of the labourers’ cottages under the new scheme in the Belleek rural district, at the sum of six shillings a month. Applications for cottages being considered, which was the principal business, the meeting concluded.
Fermanagh Times August 19th, 1915. SMITH’S WIDOW WEDS. ECHO OF BRIDES IN BATH CASE. The marriage took place on Saturday afternoon of Caroline Beatrice Love, nee Thornhill, a native of Leicester and of Thomas John Davies, of New Westminster, British Columbia, who came from Canada to enlist in the Army, and is a sapper in the Royal Engineers. The bride was the widow of George Smith who is executed on Friday and the special licence for the marriage was actually taken out on that day.
Fermanagh Times August 19th, 1915. THE ROYAL EDWARD. According to information at present available the transport sunk by an enemy submarine in the Aegean Sea last Saturday morning had on board 32 military officers and 1350 troops in addition to the ship’s crew of 220 officers and men. The troops consisted mainly of reinforcements for the 29th Division and details of the Royal Army Medical Corps. It is known that about 600 have been saved. The 29th Division contains at least three Irish regiments – 1st Royal Dublin Fusiliers, 1st Inniskilling Fusiliers, and 1st Munster Fusiliers.
Fermanagh Times August 19th, 1915. THE LOSS OF THE ROYAL EDWARD. It is with very special sorrow we learn of the sinking of the British transport in the Aegean Sea, and the loss of presumably of 1,000 lives. It is the first disaster in the magnificent transport service of which we have all been so proud since the start of the war. The loss of so many fine fellows is most deplorable. In the finest health, after a long spell of training and discipline, and eager to try themselves against the enemy and strike a blow for their country it is distressingly painful to think of them sinking hopelessly and helplessly in the deep waters just as their anticipation of landing and usefulness were on the point of culmination. Very many of them were loyal Irishmen. We do not get know yet what homes near to us here may be plunged into sorrow and mourning, but too many families, no matter where located must suffer irreparable grief from the grim tragedy.
Fermanagh Times August 19th, 1915. THE WONDERS OF THE TELEGRAPH SYSTEM. No doubt it is a war at time of war. Many of our public arrangements are out of gear. The needs of the country must have priority over private ones. But why should these affect us locally so that a telegram requires three hours to travel a distance of four miles from Ballyshannon Post Office to Rossnowlagh. The fault lies in the thorough backwardness and crass stupidity of the telegraphic authorities. The message in question, will it be credited, instead of being dispatched directly over the four mile wire that connects Ballyshannon and Rossnowlagh had to be sent away to Derry where it was reconveyed back to Donegal, we understand, and thence to Rossnowlagh. Any private firm adopting a similar way of carrying on its business would find itself very shortly in the bankruptcy court, if not in a lunatic asylum. Every divergence from medieval methods, every alteration towards up-to-date ness must have its origin in pressure from outside.
Fermanagh Times August 19th, 1915. MILITARY NOTES. The recreation room opened in the Minor Hall of the Townhall on Wednesday week has proved a very popular resort for the men of the Battalion. Evening after evening men have taken advantage of the facilities offered to them there for writing, reading, games and social intercourse. The fact that tea and refreshments may be obtained at almost a nominal price no doubt has added immensely to the attractiveness of the rendezvous. A large number of local ladies have very willingly given their services each evening and the place is conducted on the most economical lines possible. A good supply of magazines and papers has been given to the room by people in both town and country. There is a piano, too, and on this instrument many of the soldiers have shown themselves to be capable musicians and songs and choruses help to pass the time very pleasantly.
A telegram has been received from the War Office intimating that Captain John Cecil Parke, of Clones, 6th Leicester Regiment, the well-known international footballer, was wounded at the Dardanelles on the 10th Inst. Captain Parke is the well-known Irish rugby football and lawn tennis International. He represented Ireland in the three-quarter line in all her internationals for many seasons, frequently captaining the fifteen. As a tennis player he was perhaps the most brilliant player in the three Kingdoms. He was a member of the British team that won the few who of the Davies Cup in Australia, and subsequently captained the British team, that went to America. He is a brother of Mr. W. A. Parke, solicitor, Clones.
Fermanagh Times August 19th, 1915. WHY WE GAINED AT HOOGE. FOR THE FIRST TIME THE GERMANS MET THEIR MATCH IN ARTILLERY. The Daily Mail special correspondent with the British Army in the field, Mr. G. A Valentine Williams states that our men were successful east of Ypres last week because “for the first time the Germans met their match in artillery. Our guns had the ammunition required.” “Our artillery was magnificent. As our men saw our shells crashing in a never ending roar into the German positions and wreathing all the German lines in the mist and smoke they were related to think that at length the Germans were getting what our fellows have so often had to endure. We all realized that this time at any rate, our guns had the ammunition required to deal with the immense battery which is what the German army really is. Our advance resulted in the capture of 1,200 yards of trenches and 164 prisoners, including three officers, two machine guns, and a trench mortar as well as a large stock of German ammunition, notably bombs.
Fermanagh Times August 19th, 1915. DONEGAL LABOURERS’ FLEEING SCOTLAND. There was a falling off in the number of Nationalist labourers’ arriving at Londonderry from Scotland on Saturday to escape registration. Between200 and 300 came. On Saturday there were almost 600 arrivals by boat and 200 by a train. Practically all are Donegal men. They were objects of derision, and soldiers could be seen ironically saluting them. Half a dozen of Sunday’s arrivals were breakfasting in a lodging house, when the proprietor presented an alien registration form, and the party took fright and left the house without finishing the breakfast.
In Mayo two trains with very nearly 200 able bodied men arrived in the island of Achill from England and Scotland and were fine strong men all heading out to the west from England. They admit they have left good jobs with good pay and that there is no work for them at home. The hay is saved and the potatoes would not be fit to dig for a long time yet.
Fermanagh Times August 19th, 1915. AMERICANS AEROPLANES FOR FRANCE. A PROPOSED GIFT OF 1000 MACHINES. One thousand American aeroplanes, purchased with American money and officered by American aviators, are to be offered by an American organisation to France for the use of the French Army in the present war, according to a cable dispatch from the Paris correspondent of the New York World. Circulars are to be issued to the graduates of Yale, Harvard, and Princeton, inviting them on patriotic grounds to aid in the defence of their country. They will be asked to join the French Aviation Corps for the duration of the war, after which their military experience we’ll qualify them to become reserve aviators in the United States. They will be formed into a special corps in France, under their own officers, and will receive an additional £10 a month over and above the regular French flying man’s pay.
Fermanagh Times August 19th, 1915. THE GERMAN’S NEW AIRCRAFT. The Germans super warplane or battle aeroplane has been designed to carry out the same tactics which the cruisers of the notorious Emden type were built to pursue on the ocean. These aerial craft are essentially raiders, and they be launched against towns, villages, cities, strategic military centres, artillery fortresses or other defences. Their outstanding features are an extensive carrying capacity of both men and ammunition in the form of bombs, while they are also powerfully armed with machine guns. The Germans have solved one or two perplexing problems in connection with the arming of aeroplanes in their new aerial machine gun. A new system allows the gun to be moved through the requisite firing arches and the gun can be swung from side to side and brought into the firing position with a minimum of effort and so the fire may be directed from either broadside as desired. The new warplane is able to carry a larger crew in order to protect the aeroplane. This is achieved by means of what has already become known as the aerial sniper. Like his colleagues working in the trenches he is a crack quick shot and adept with the automatic arm. His specific duty is to pick off the marksmen in any enemy machines. These aerial snipers are selected men who have passed through a special course of aeronautical training. When not engaged in sniping duties the rifleman is free to pursue bomb throwing activities. Owing to the comparatively slow speed at which these large battle aeroplanes can travel the task of bomb throwing is appreciably facilitated, and great accuracy of aim is assured. The steady platform which the aeroplane offers enables the machine gun fire to be concentrated far more effectively than is the case with the average aeroplane. Steadiness and low velocity in flight are a decided assistance to the sniper because he is an able to take his aim with greater deliberation.
Fermanagh Times August 19th, 1915. BELLEEK. A man named James William Elliott, belonging to the town land of Killymore, was admitted on Wednesday to the workhouse infirmary, Ballyshannon, suffering from concussion of the brain and other injuries, the result of accidentally falling off a horse near Belleek.
When two men were working in a bog in the townland of Corry, near Belleek, they discovered a firkin of butter, weighing about 56 lbs, buried to a depth of 8 feet, and in a good state of preservation. It is supposed to have been deposited in the bog for a considerable time.
Impartial Reporter. August 19th 1915. DISPUTE ABOUT A PRIEST’S BURIAL. The remains of the Rev. J. O’Toole, P. P., which were interned in the church grounds of Kilmeena, West Mayo, were taken up and reinterred during the night, it is presumed by some parishioners in a grave dug within the church itself. The ecclesiastical authorities having given direction as to the place of burial within a few feet of the church, which is a small one, a deputation to the Most Rev. Dr. Higgins auxiliary Bishop of Tuam, requested that the dead priests should be buried in a spot which the deceased had indicated within the sacred edifice. Dr. Higgins said he could not depart from the directions of the Archbishop. Accordingly after Office and High Mass the internment took place outside the church. Although there were murmurs of dissatisfaction the people separated quietly. It is said about 35 men took part in the retransfer but none of the relatives of the deceased participated in it.
Impartial Reporter. August 19th 1915. A SERIOUS FRACAS IN ENNISKILLEN BARRACKS AND TWO MEN IN HOSPITAL. On Tuesday night last a serious affray took place in the main barracks Enniskillen. A detachment numbering about 50 men arrived from the Dublin fusiliers and this party since they arrived do not seem to have been particularly happy in their new surroundings. It is a well-known fact that the north cannot get on very well with the south and vice versa and the Dublin men since their arrival in the north have shown their antipathy to the transfer. It seems that the party of Dublin men had some trouble among themselves and eventually a section barricaded a room against all comers. The men on duty battered at the door and eventually succeeded in breaking an open. So fierce was the opposition that the fire hose had to be turned upon the recalcitrant who seeing the position was hopeless surrendered. Some 20 panes of glass were broken and two men had to be removed to hospital suffering from bayonet wounds and two others had minor wounds, principally cuts. Seven men were arrested and put in the guardroom to await a court martial. After their arrest the Dublin men cursed the Inniskillings and acted in rowdy manner while being conveyed to the cells.
Impartial Reporter. August 19th 1915. CAN ENNISKILLEN HELP? While Enniskillen has already nobly responded to the call for recruits and has given over 600 of its inhabitants to the fighting forces might it not also be the site for a proposed munitions factory.
Impartial Reporter. August 26th 1915. MORE GERMAN MURDERS. The White Star liner Arabic outward bound for New York from Liverpool was torpedoed and sunk off the Cork Coast on Thursday morning. The pirates gave no warning of the outrage and the vessel disappeared in 11 minutes, her side being torn out. There were about to 426 persons aboard and of these 50 are missing, including six passengers and 44 of the crew. This latest submarine outrage took place close to the scene of that which resulted in the sinking of the Lusitania with its awful death toll.
Impartial Reporter. August 26th 1915. PERSONAL. The death of Captain James C. Johnston, adjutant of the 6th Royal Irish Fusiliers was announced on Saturday and received with all the more regret as the last male in the direct line of the Johnston family of Magheramena Castle. Captain Johnston was High Sheriff for the county in 1910 and during the last three years of the Aberdeen regime in the Irish Viceroyalty was Private Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant. He was a fine soldier, and had served through the Boer campaign with the 14th Hussars. The late Captain Johnston who was educated at Charterhouse and Sandhurst was a Resident Magistrate for County Meath. The deceased was a cousin to Major Johnston, Recruiting Officer, Enniskillen.
Rev. W. H. Massy recently Methodist Minister in Enniskillen, while riding a motor cycle was severely injured in a collision with a large motor car driven by a Belfast lad, and has been conveyed to the Cottage Hospital, Coleraine.
Second lieutenant Reg. S. Trimble, 6th Royal Irish Fusiliers, wounded and suffering from shock at the Dardanelles has been removed to the Military Hospital, the Citadel, Cairo. Second lieutenant L. Falls is in the same hospital suffering from wounds in the leg.
Impartial Reporter. August 26th 1915. SINN FEINERS IN TYRONE. PRIEST ON THE PLATFORM. On Sunday afternoon a mobilisation of several companies of the Irish Volunteers (the Sinn Fein section) took place at Carrickmore, County Tyrone when some 200 members, about 1/3 of who carried rifles, paraded under the command of Mr. McCrory, Clogher, the county instructor. A crowd of about 700-800 also assembled. A police note taker was present, and a considerable force of constabulary drawn from a number of stations in the county was in attendance under the command of District Inspector Barrington, Dungannon and Head Constable Fallon. At a public meeting, Rev. C Shortt, CC, Carrickmore presided. The chairman said Mr. Redmond had slippery English politicians to deal with who would try to make them swallow the exclusion of Ulster but if he had control of the Volunteers he could say, I can’t oblige you for I have obstinate fellows behind me who are driving me on. (Cheers.)
Fermanagh Herald August 21st 1915. A telegram has been received from the War Office intimating that captain John Cecil Parke, of Clones, 6th Leinster Regiment, the well-known International footballer, was wounded at the Dardanelles on the 10th Inst.. Captain Parke is the well-known Irish rugby football and lawn tennis International. He represented Ireland in the three-quarter line in all her Internationals for many seasons, frequently captaining the 15. As a tennis player, he was perhaps the most brilliant player in the Three Kingdoms. He was a member of the British team that won the Davis Cup in Australia, and subsequently captained the British team that went to America.
The relatives of Private Alex Armstrong, of Maguiresbridge, have learned from the War Office that he died of wounds in France. He belonged to the 2nd Inniskillings.
Fermanagh Times August 26th, 1915. IN MEMORY OF GALLANT INNISKILLING S. DROWNED AT PORT ELIZABETH 60 YEARS AGO. We are indebted to Mr. Arthur Rice, brother of our townsman, Mr. Edward Rice, for the following very interesting account of the unveiling of a memorial tablet recalling a pathetically tragic event in the career of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers so far back as three score years ago. On the 11th of July in St. Mary’s Church, Port Elizabeth, the tablet erected by the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in memory of the members of the regiment who were lost in the wreck of the troopship, Charlotte, in 1854, was unveiled. The prayer of dedication was recited by the Venerable Archdeacon Wirgman, after which the tablet was uncovered by Mrs. Dowsett, as the oldest parishioner of Saint Mary’s who remembers the wreck. The tablet is erected close to the door and its inscription is as follows: In memory of 62 rank and file, 11 women and 26 children of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers who perished in the wreck of the Troopship Charlotte on the rocks at the end of Jesse Street, on September 20th, 1854. This Tablet was placed here by the regiment, A.D. 1914. R. I. P.
Fermanagh Times August 26th, 1915. CATTLE DRIVING IN IRELAND. Violent outbreaks of cattle driving have taken place in various northern parts of King’s County the occasion being the annual grass lettings. The drivers wanted the lands let to them, which the owners refused. 200 extra police have been drafted into the affected districts. 58 of the drivers were yesterday returned for trial to the county assizes.
Fermanagh Times August 26th, 1915. THE VALUE OF HORSES. Owing to the stoppage of buying horses for the army, prices have fallen of greatly during the past month. In many fairs recently, though the show of animals of all kinds on offer was considerable, very few business transactions took place. Owners holding out for the high rates of three months ago when army purchasers were active failed to realise that the demand has slackened off. Buyers in the trade are as anxious as ever to take horses at the normal prices.
Fermanagh Times August 26th, 1915. THE EVIL OF SEPARATION ALLOWANCE. Alice Harren, Head street, had three summonses, one for disorderly conduct and two for simple drunkenness, Acting–Sergeant McGowan and Constable Cryan were complainants. Defendant said two of her sons had been killed and another son had come home wounded last week. The R.M. Are you in receipt of separation allowance? Defendant – Yes18 shillings and four pence a week. My two sons have been killed. The R.M. – Is that the manner in which you pay respect to their memory by getting drunk. A months imprisonment in the first case was ordered, and a fine of 40 shillings and costs in each of the other cases, the Chairman remarking that defendant had been repeatedly warned. Mary Love, Enniskillen was fined 20 shillings for drunkenness. She was also in receipt of separation allowance and she was warned that if she came back there a recommendation would be made by the Bench to have the separation allowance stopped.
Fermanagh Times August 26th, 1915. ANOTHER ATLANTIC LINER TORPEDOED. THE WHITE STAR “ARABIC” SUNK WITH NO WARNING GIVEN. The White Star Liner Arabic fell a victim to a German submarine on Thursday morning of the Fastnet. She was torpedoed without warning, and foundered in 10 minutes. The liner was on her way from Liverpool to New York, with a crew of 243 and 180 passengers. Eleven of the ship’s boats were launched, and the occupants were picked up by another vessel. Three hundred and ninety one persons are known to have been saved, leaving only 32 to be accounted for. The Arabic is the first White Star Liner to have been sunk by a submarine.
Fermanagh Times August 26th, 1915. ROLL OF HONOUR. A FERMANAGH OFFICER KILLED. CAPTAIN J. C. JOHNSTON, MAGHERAMENA. A telegram has been received from the War Office to say that Captain J. C. Johnston, adjutant of the6th Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers, has been killed in action in the he Dardanelles. Captain Johnston served through their Boer War with the 14thHussars, and was Private Secretary to the Earl of Aberdeen during the last three years of his Viceroyalty. He was educated at Charterhouse and Sandhurst, and was recently appointed Resident Magistrates for the County of Meath. His family residence was Magheramena Castle, County Fermanagh, of which county he was High Sheriff in the year 1910.
Second–Lieutenant R. S. Trimble, 6th Irish Fusiliers, wounded at the Dardanelles, is a son of Mr. W. C. Trimble, Enniskillen. He was engaged with Messrs. Guinness, and was a member of the Wanderers Football Club.
Fermanagh Times August 26th, 1915. THE HIDDEN DEATH. HOW I SANK THE MAJESTIC AND TRIUMPH. The New York Globe publishes the following description of the sinking of the British warships Triumph and Majestic off the Dardanelles given to its correspondent by Captain Otto Herzing, the commander of the German submarine, whom the correspondent describes as “a maker of world history.”
“In the early morning light we saw the Triumph and Majestic lying off the coast constantly encircled by destroyers. Through the periscope I saw a destroyer coming directly for us. We dived and the destroyer passed immediately over us with a sound like that of a motor car. We came up immediately. I took aim through the periscope at the Triumph, pressed the button automatically firing the torpedo, and the projectiles slipped noiselessly into the water. We dived again. The explosion which followed was as terrific as though it had been in the forepart of the submarine itself.
Then we lay hidden for two days and a half after which we came up again in the midst of the British ships. Just before noon looking through the periscope, I saw the Majestic surrounded by 10 ships steaming around her in a constant circle for her protection. I could see the Majestic Sailors on the deck taking their noonday nap. Shall I disturb them? I thought. Then seeing a welcome space between the circling ships I pressed the electric button and the torpedo was going. It caught the Majestic a little to the rear of amidships. We dived again in silence. It is remarkably quiet in a submarine when underwater, and we hear sounds, being able to distinguish various propellers by the different rumblings. We noticed that the bombardment from the ships had ceased, for they had been shelling the Turkish land positions. We remain submerged for several hours and then came to the surface to find that the British had disappeared, and all search for them was in vain. We came to Constantinople, arriving yesterday morning having spent 42 days in the submarine without rest or let up. Captain Herzing’s record, declares the Globe correspondent is unique. Aside from firing the first torpedo sinking a ship and sinking two more warships in the Dardanelles, he sank five English and French freighter ships which were in Havre last November. The torpedo tube from which was fired the torpedo which sank the Pathfinder has been engraved with that name. Now the name Triumph has been added, while the name Majestic is engraved on the second tube.
Fermanagh Times August 26th, 1915.
THE HARVEST MEN OF DONEGAL.
The war has brought its humours; it has brought its horrors too,
Its horrors which have held the world in thrall;
But there is nothing more distressing to the Irishman who’s true,
Than the Harvestmen’s return to Donegal.
They were only asked to Register upon a certain date,
Their age and occupation – that was all;
Perhaps they might consent to earn good wages from the State,
These sturdy Harvestmen of Donegal.
Sure, the form wasn’t binding; it was well within their choice –
They were told – to still ignore the trumpets call;
But they were perverse to reason, they listened to no voice –
But the impulse to return to Donegal.
From Scotland’s fertile Lothians, from Ayrshire’s grainlands bright,
From Lancashire to Southern Cornwall;
They cleared off like silent Arabs, some in the dead of night,
Back to their little homes in Donegal.
Reviled and jeered and scorned by all who saw their flight,
At Greenock little kiddies tried to maul
These gallant Irish “Exiles” rushing on with all their might
To catch the boat en route for Donegal.
Their homes they reached in safely, though they gained ignoble fame;
Meanwhile they are free from any prying Paul,
For liberty’s a jewel oft known by another name
From the Police point of view – in Donegal.
The Huns may strangled Belgium, they made devastate fair France,
Our great empire may either stand or fall;
Such wrongs inspire no Harvestmen to take up gun or lance,
He’ll squat behind the hills of Donegal.
At Demonstrations he’ll be out arrayed in war paint green,
For freedoms glorious cause he’ll loudly bawl;
But Britain in the future should ignore his petty spleen,
For serfdom’s good enough for Donegal.
Fermanagh Times August 26th, 1915. LISNASKEA CHILD’S DEATH. The inquest was resumed by Mr. James Mulligan, J.P., coroner, on Monday night touching the death of the nine days old male child of Martha Burnes, a domestic servant. The child, it seems, was left by the mother with a Mrs. Donaghy, at Derryadd, and on Mrs. Donaghy, junior, putting it into the cradle she found it was dead. Medical evidence of the post-mortem examination showed that the body was emaciated and 2lb lighter than the average baby. There was an extravasation of blood on the outside of the skull and a corresponding effusion on the brain, probably the result of a fall or a blow. The viscera and other organs were forwarded to Mr. Patten, public analyst, Belfast, and he reported that he found no poisonous substance. The Coroner commented on the action of the Lisnaskea Workhouse officials in refusing admission to the mother and child five days before its death. The foreman Mr. McMahon said that if the mother and child had been admitted to the workhouse the child might have been alive yet. The jury found that the deceased died from the effect of a blow or a fall on the skull, but how or by whom this was inflicted they had no evidence. Private P. McCormick, who at the outbreak of the war was porter in Lisnaskea Workhouse, has been wounded in the foot at the Dardanelles and now lies in hospital in Cairo.
Impartial Reporter. August 26th 1915. DARDANELLES. THE LANDING AT SUVLA BAY. The landing at Suvla Bay was a complete and staggering surprise for the Turks who had been expecting a new attack on the Asiatic side. Never in military operations have any enemy been so hoodwinked. On the appointed night warships, transports, destroyers and trawlers arrived at Suvla Bay and disembarked the troops when the Turks were all waiting feverishly for an attack on the Asiatic side of the Dardanelles. Every soldier carried three days’ rations as well as trenching tools. As the men landed they advanced 6 miles inland. Daylight came and still the work was proceeding with the greatest possible speed. Artillery and supplies and vast quantities were put on shore and still no opposition was experienced. The warships were silent and for 24 hours the operation was carried out without a single shot from big gun or rifle being fired. The Turks rushed forces to the spot and on the second night both sides dug themselves in, fought for position in groups with bayonets and even with entrenching tools. It is estimated that 700,000 were brought up by the enemy. In the morning light a terrific battle began. Strong bodies of troops thrown against several points of the British lines were hurled back. All day long the lines of the fighting men turned and twisted turned and twisted again but never broke.
(From Wikipedia) The landing at Suvla Bay was an amphibious landing made at Suvla on the Aegean coast of Gallipoli peninsula in the Ottoman Empire as part of the August Offensive, the final British attempt to break the deadlock of the Battle of Gallipoli. The landing, which commenced on the night of 6 August 1915, was intended to support a breakout from the Anzac sector, five miles (8 km) to the south. Despite facing light opposition, the landing at Suvla was mismanaged from the outset and quickly reached the same stalemate conditions that prevailed on the Anzac and Helles fronts. On 15 August, after a week of indecision and inactivity, the British commander at Suvla, Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Stopford was dismissed. His performance in command was one of the most incompetent feats of generalship of the First World War.
The Suvla landing was to be made by the newly formed British IX Corps, initially comprising two brigades of the 10th (Irish) Division and the entire 11th (Northern) Division. Command of IX Corps was given to Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Stopford. British military historian J.F.C. Fuller said of Stopford that he had “no conception of what generalship meant” and indeed he was appointed not on his experience (he had seen little combat and had never commanded men in battle) or his energy and enthusiasm (he was aged 61 and had retired in 1909) but because of his position on the list of seniority. Hamilton had requested either Lieutenant-General Julian Byng or Lieutenant-General Henry Rawlinson, both experienced Western Front corps commanders, but both were junior to Lieutenant-General Sir Bryan Mahon, commander of the 10th Division and so, by a process of elimination, Stopford was selected.
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