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Several relatives have told me over the years that our grandfather, William
Kelly of Corglancy, was at one time in the Irish Police Force.
In November 2007, a contact, Inspector Patrick McGee, of the Garda in Dublin,
kindly agreed to look into this for me, and these are the documents he found.
Document three is the entry in the Garda Record Sheet recording a monetary award
for “GOOD POLICE DUTY”.
Document two here is William’s application form, in his own hand.
I was suprised to see that he had such good handwriting! It’s also interesting that he states he has relatives in “Donegal and Mayo”. Can anyone shed any light on this?
Following the visit of Paudraig, Margaret, Dave, Julie and Patricia to Belgium
in Nov 2006, I’ve been told that we have a Kelly ancestor who lost his life in the Great War.
Edward (Eddy) Kelly was a private (Service No: 19939) in the 7th/8th Battallion
Royal Irish Fusiliers, when he was killed on 22nd August 1917, aged 24. He was
the son of James and Alice Kelly, of Treenadulla, Beagh, Dromahair. Alice was a
sister of my gran, Margaret Kelly.
The official name of the battle in which Edward was killed is 3rd Ypres, but it
is universally known as the Battle of Passchendaele because it was really a
series of engagements with the one objective of taking Passchendaele Village
and its Ridge.
The particular action he was involved in was three weeks of ill-advised attacks
on Langemark by General Haig, who finally abandoned the insanity just four days
after Edward was killed. There are plenty of websites devoted to Passchendale
and this disastrous campaign.
Edward is buried in Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Belgium, grave ref:
XVIII.D. 1a.
Paudraig has also confirmed that the Canadian runner James Duffy, who was killed
in the Great War, was indeed a relative of ours. Jimmy - who was recently
honoured in the “Jimmy Duffy’s Last Run” marathon, is buried in Vlamertinge (Belgium, near Ypres). Plot 1, Row F. Grave
14.
