The sun now it shines on the green fields of France

There's a warm summer breeze, it makes the red poppies dance.

And look how the sun shines from under the clouds

There's no gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now.

But here in this graveyard it's still no-man's-land.

The countless white crosses stand mute in the sand,

To man's blind indifference to his fellow man,

To a whole generation that were butchered and damned

(from ‘The Green Fields of France’ by Eric Bogle)

The 28th of July 1914 is the date given for the start of the First World War, even though the actual causes of the war stretch back much further in history. But on that date in 1914, the first shots were fired, and so began a conflict that was to have far reaching consequences in every part of the world. Nine million combatants were killed in the conflict and 35,000 of those were Irishmen. Over 200,000 Irishmen had served in the conflict. Given these numbers, it is to be expected that every locality in Ireland was represented either in the serving soldier list or, sadly, in the ‘killed in action’ list.

Dan Riordan, the postmaster at Clogheen, wrote a letter to a friend in the USA in 1915 in which he said that five of his brothers, Eddie, Clement, Vincent, Charlie, and Lou, had gone off to fight in the war. He continued: “There are hundreds gone from around here now. Jim Hogan is in France in the Irish Guards, so is Joe Burke. Jack Daly is an artillery man. Three of Geoffrey Prendergast’s sons are joined. I could name them by the hundreds, but you wouldn’t remember the names. Up to this there are only four killed, about ten or twelve are prisoners of war. But a good many are back from time to time, wounded, but are off again as soon as they are all right.”

The names of some of those killed in the ‘Cahir area’ are inscribed on the WW1 monument near Cahir Castle. Hundreds of other Tipperary men are listed in The Tipperary War Dead by Tom and Ruth Burnell. However, one of those killed in that awful conflict, who is not listed on the Cahir monument, was a young man from Kiltankin, Ballyporeen, named David Condon. David was the son of Michael and Johanna Condon (nee Fitzgerald from Skeheenarinky). He was born in 1894 and grew up in the family home which was described in the 1901 census as 'a four-roomed thatched cottage'. His siblings were John, James, Kate, Patrick, Johanna and Mary Anne.

In 1899, David registered as a pupil in Skeheenarinky National School. Eight years later, on the 30th June 1907, while in fifth class, he took his last yearly examination and so finished his education.

Having left school, the young man may well have worked on local farms for a few years, as the 1911 census shows he was living and working with the Williams family on their farm at Coolaprevane, Ballyporeen.

Around 1914, David moved to Wales to join his brother James who had already emigrated. Both men soon joined the British Army in what must have seemed to be the adventure of a lifetime. David gave his Irish address as ‘Kilbehenny’ when he enlisted in the army at Caerphilly. The young Kiltankin man, son of Michael and Johanna, former Skeheenarinky School student and former farm worker, was now Guardsman David Condon, No. 10076, 1st Battalion, Irish Guards. At the end of July 1916, the Battalion moved to the Somme from the Ypres sector, to play its part in the Battle of the Somme in northern France. That battle has been described as one of humanity’s bloodiest conflicts with over one million men being wounded or killed.

On the night of 13th March, 191 after many months of intense warfare, the German Army began to withdraw after days of heavy bombardment of both the British and the German sides. That same day, the 1st Battalion Irish Guards had taken over from the 4th Battalion Grenadier Guards, a stretch of trench at Sailly-Saillisel, when active patrolling found that the German line ahead was clear and was at once occupied by the Irish Guards.

On the night of the 14th March, David Condon met with his brother at base camp and, perhaps because of some premonition, gave him a photo to be given to a young lady back home in Ireland. On the 15th March 1917, the Irish Guards went forward with their 2nd Battalion on their right and the 2nd Battalion Coldstream Guards on the left. An hour later they came under long range machine gun and heavy artillery fire while they were occupying a captured German trench named ‘Bayreuth’. The German Army might have been retreating but they were fighting as they did so.

Private David Condon of Kiltankin was killed in action on that day, the 15th March, 1917 He is buried at Sailly-Saillisel British Cemetery, Somme, France.

As we begin the year 2014, let us remember David Condon and the thousands of Irishmen who fought and died during the Great War, particularly the men from our own areas who helped to keep Europe free.

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