Page 9 - Greystones Archaeological Historical Society

GREYSTONES ARCHAEOLOGICAL & HISTORICAL SOCIETY JOURNAL VOLUME 8

The Great War – Personal Reflections

Lord Meath

The following paper was presented by Lord Meath at the La Touche
th
Legacy Festival of History event on the 26 September 2014 which
had World War I as its main theme.
P
ersonally I think that the adjective 'great' should mean
something good, wholesome or worthwhile. In this context it
is used to describe outrage; conflagration; an industrial monster
which killed millions of service men and women, millions of
civilians, millions of horses and livestock; destroyed heritage
buildings, hundreds of thousands of domestic homes, precious
artefacts, farm lands and forests, in fact a huge crime against the
ethics of civilisation and human decency.

Britain and Ireland lost approximately 900,000, who were
killed or died of wounds; France lost approximately 3.5 million,
Germany 4 million. We do not know what the Russian casualties
were but at the battle of Tannenberg Generals Samsonov and
Rennenkampf lost approximately 245,000 soldiers killed in
action or who died of wounds. Italy stayed neutral in 1914 but
came into the war against Austro/Hungary in 1915, casualties
are unknown. These are recorded figures, but what about those
who died afterwards from wounds who were no longer serving
or who counted the civilian casualties?

If you visit the newly commissioned war memorial at
Woodenbridge to those men and women from County Wicklow
who lost their lives you will know that there are some 1192
names recorded and there may be more to come. This is just
from one county.
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