As commemorations continue around the globe to remember those who died fighting in the First World War all of 100 years ago, the WW1 memorial wall in Fermoy has fallen into disrepair.

Situated adjacent to the park in the town, the wall bears the names of 131 soldiers who died fighting in the war from Fermoy and its surrounding areas. However many of those names inscribed on the memorial have partially or completely faded, a sad occurance given the century anniversary of the Great War.

The memorial was unveiled in October 2006 by then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, following painstaking research by former soldier, Paudie McGrath. Des Keegan, a member of the Irish United Nations Veterans Association, Post 25, was on the original committee that was behind the erection of the memorial. He says the problem relates to a limestone wall that lies behind the memorial.

“The wall was put up against that and since then we’ve had that wall re-pointed twice. The last time it was done was a couple of years ago, professionally done by a very reputable sculptor from the Yougal direction.

“He said it’s always going to have a problem because of what’s backing it, and he said three years would be what you’d get out of the current job, that’s the time limit,” he says.

The memorial had been taken over by Fermoy Town Council, and since then has been handed over to Cork County Council. Fermoy councillor Noel McCarthy, has been involved with ensuring the memorial is repaired.

Mr Keegan says he recently made a query to Cork County Council as to what would happen to the memorial.

He says that repair and restoration costs will be included in Cork County Council’s budget, which will see the limestone wall behind removed, and the memorial re-sealed, re-pointed and re-painted, which according to Mr Keegan ‘should do away with the problem forever’.

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