IT IS A MISTAKEN BELIEF THAT ALL THE YOUNG MEN AND BOYS FROM THE SHANKILL AREA WHO ENLISTED IN THE BRITISH ARMY IN THE GREAT WAR OF 1914-1918 JOINED THE 9TH BATTALION ROYAL IRISH RIFLES THE WEST BELFAST VOLUNTEERS .U.S.S.F. MANY YOUNG MEN FROM THIS AREA JOINED ENGLISH ,SCOTS, AND INDEED JOINED THE 10TH AND 16TH IRISH DIVISIONS
ccording to populair
It was a belief that the youngest boy to enlist in the allied armies was John Condon from Waterford, Ireland. He was supposedly 12 years old .
In 1915 John Condon went with the Royal Irish Regiment to Flanders. He died on 24th May 1915, during a German gas-attack near Ypres. His gravestone (picture on the right), nr. 6322 at the Poelkapelle British Cemetery in Belgium, mentions his age as 14.
New investigations in 2002 by Aurel Sercu from Ypres, Flanders, revealed that someone else may be buried in John Condon's grave. Sercu also found indications that John Condon was in fact 18 years old.
WE MUST BE CAREFUL NOT TO PUT THE 10TH AND 16TH IRISH DIVISIONS ON ONE HAND AND THE 36TH ULSTER DIVISION ON THE OTHER INTO THE OBVIOUS POLITICAL NICHES SOME IRISH REGIMENTS NOTABLY THE ROYAL IRISH RIFLES HAD ALWAYS RECRUITED BOTH CATHOLICS AND PROTESTANTS. AN OFFICER IN THE 10TH DIVISION WE FOUND THOUSANDS OF POINTS ON WHICH WE AGREED ON THE SAME MUSIC COULD SPEAK TO BOTH. WHEN THE PIPES OF THE ROYAL IRISH HOWLED OUT BRIAN BORU, THAT TUNE TRADITIONALLY PLAYED BY SOME IRISH REGIMENTS TO LIFT HEARTS AND SQUARE SHOULDERS IN THE ASSAULT ON GUILLEMONT ON THE 15TH SEPTEMBER 1916, A MAN DID NOT HAVE TO COME FROM THE SOUTH TO FEEL HIS SPIRITS SOAR.AND WHEN A NORTHERN BATTALION AND SOUTHERN BATTALION MET AND THE BAND PLAYED AN OLD REBEL AIR SHE,S THE MOST DISTRESSFUL COUNTRY , THERE WERE CHEERS OF APPROVAL.
THE APOTHEOSIS OF THE FIGHTING IRISH CAME ON THE 7TH JUNE 1917 WHEN THE 16TH AND THE 36TH DIVISION ATTACKED SIDE BY SIDE IN THE 2ND ARMY,S GREAT ASSAULT ON MESSINES RIDGE. THE HOME RULER JOHN REDMOND BROTHER MAJOR WILLIE REDMOND MP, WHO HAD LAST SPOKEN IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS JUST A MONTH BEFORE TO DEMAND IMMEDIATE HOME RULE FOR IRELAND, WAS AT 56 YEARS OLD TO OLD FOR FRONT LINE SERVICE. BUT HE BEGGED TO BE ALLOWED TO GO BACK TO HIS OLD BATTALION THE 6TH ROYAL IRISH BUT WAS HIT AS HE WALKED FORWARD SEEING REDMOND WOUNDED ON THE BATTLEFIELD STRETCHERS-BEARERS FROM THE 36TH ULSTER DIVISION RUSHED FORWARD PICKED HIM UP THE WOUND WOULD PROBABLY NOT HAVE KILLED A YOUNGER MORE FITTER MAN BUT IT WAS ALL TO MUCH FOR MAJOR REDMOND.
A ROMAN CATHOLIC CHAPLAIN TOLD HOW: HE RECEIVED EVERY POSSIBLE KINDNESS FROM THE ULSTER SOLDIERS.IN FACT, AN ENGLISHMAN ATTACHED TO THE ULSTER DIVISION EXPRESSED SOME SURPRISE AT THE EXTREME CARE THAT WAS TAKEN OF THE POOR MAJOR , THOUGH NO IRISH SOLDIER EXPECTED ANYTHING ELSE , AFTER ALL ULSTERMEN ARE IRISH TOO.
