On Tuesday November 11^th a very moving remembrance services was held at the Cathedral, which included a short film, a speech, songs, poems, a scripture reading, prayers, the last post and laying of wreaths, by Clare Co. Council, Ennis, Kilrush and Shannon Town Councils, the British Legion, the American Legion, The Munster Fusiliers Association, Clare Council of Trade Unions, the Organisation of National Ex-servicemen and bereaved families.  The names of 571 casualties were shown in sequence on a giant screen…..

            At the conclusion of the service a speaker recalled the late Michael Mulqueen Chairman of Ennis UDC, telling that his father was in Ennis Cathedral when the list of causalities from the battle of the Somme was read from the pulpit. The air was rent with cries of grief and despair from every section of the Cathedral.

Ennis Enlisted:  Military records show that 112 Ennis natives or residents lost their lives during World War 1.  Records for Clare show 571 casualties.  Historians put the total Clare dead at 700. One contemporary, P.E. Kennelly acclaimed that 1,100 enlisted from Ennis. This figure is confirmed by the 10% casualty rate for all units.  A further 30% were wounded.

            The Ennis enlisted served mainly in the UK armed forces- mostly in the army.  A few served in the Naval and Air Services. Others served in the armed forces of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, India and the United States.

            Some of the Ennis men were regular soldiers who had served in India and South Africa.  Others joined for a variety of reasons – to escape poverty, to seek adventure, to defend the freedom of small nations and reaction to stories of atrocities.

            Each death was tragic to the bereaved families.  All were volunteers, with the exception of those conscripted while resident in the U.K. Most died between August 4^th 1914 and November 11^th 1918.  A Few died from wounds in the years after the war.

Peadar MacNamara.