Remembrance Day In Templemore

Pictured below Billy Fennel laying a wreath on behalf of ONE

Those who gathered at the Town Hall in Templemore on Sunday morning last fell silent as the clock tolled 11 o’clock to commemorate the ending of WW1 on 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month 1918.
One hundred years ago on November 11 at precisely 11am the guns fell silent on all fronts bringing to an end the most horrific soldiers war in the history of human conflict.
Tomas McDonagh Pipe Band was on parade accompanied by members of Templemore Organisation of National Exservicemen.
Three members of the pipe band had family in the Great War.
David Cummins - his grandfather Jimmy Hennessey survived and came home – he was one of the lucky ones.
Sharon Quinn - her great granduncle John Leahy died in action in Belgium, his body was never recovered. His name is on a wall panel at Tyne Cot Military Cemetery. Sharon, on behalf of the band laid a wreath in remembrance of the 76 men from Templemore and surrounding area who never came home.
Cillian Roche - his great granduncle, Barrack Street man Michael Morrissey, killed in Belgium. His name is written in one of “The Books of The Fallen” in the Round Tower at Messenes Ridge.
Cillian played a lament The Battle of the Somme for all the Tipperary men who died in the war. Incidently, the pipes Cillian played were pipes of The 5th Reserve Batt Leinster Regiment which were actually played in France. They belong to Joe Barry who purchased them three years ago through a contact who knew he would be interested in them.
Francis Ledwedge, warrior /poet who died for Ireland on a dirt road in Belgium had a significant link with Tomas McDonagh, and in remembrance, band member Ciarán Byrne read the poem The Bittern – (lament for Thomas McDonagh). The Band then performed “The Bloody Fields of Flanders”, after which the lady members of the pipe band played a tune remembering The Sufragettes.
Proceedings then transferred to members of the ONE, as we moved to the War Memorial site at the Town Hall where 76 crosses with shamrock and poppy emblems were draped on the railing surrounding the Gun Monument .
On behalf of the O.N.E Billy Fennel laid a wreath as the sounds of The Last Post rang out.