The development of the archive of Fermoy’s War (1914-1918) continues with material coming forth from members of the public and through archival searches of repositories, including the County Archives in Cork and The National Archives (UK).

The stories of those who died in the war are sometimes passed down through the generations, and their effort and ultimate sacrifice may still be remembered. The stories of those who survived the war are harder to find: the one single line that is repeated over and over is this, “he never spoke about it”. Those who survived the war returned to a country utterly changed from the one they had left, as they themselves were utterly changed by their experiences.

Local boys who joined up did so for reasons beyond our knowing, but we can surely assume a combination of economics, limited prospects at home for work, or for something interesting to do, all played a part. And the idea of war just seemed so undeniably exciting! Even though it was entirely unknowable, what one could glean about the regularised, challenging life of a soldier could fit into the imagination of a young man in a way the reality of what was to come could not.

DUE RECOGNITION

Having survived one long, terrible fight, many men fought another battle on returning home, trying to regain a place for themselves, one in which they did not all succeed. The space they had vacated had now filled up with a different belief, a rhetoric in which they had no voice, no narrative, no point of view that could be voiced.

Fermoy’s War archive is making every effort to give recognition to these men and women who returned from the war, who reinvented themselves if they were able, who lived their best version of a life which now included visions and memories of which they could not rid themselves and of which they so often could not speak.

If any reader has any material that relates to anyone who served in The Great War and wish to have it included in the archive, please contact Mary Colette Sheehan at fermoyswar@gmail.com. Please also get in touch if you want to share memorabilia or memories of Fermoy and her soldiers of The Great War.

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