Enniskillen War Memorial

Enniskillen’s War Memorial at the intersection of Belmore Steet, the Queen Elizabeth Road and East Bridge Street was constructed in the aftermath of World War I to commemorate those who lost their lives in that war.

The Memorial stands about 6.5 metres high and is surmounted by a bronze figure of a lone private soldier in war kit, head bowed and leaning on his reversed rifle. I was particularly taken by the 1932 picture of the War Memorial (picture 2 above) taken by Fr.Francis Browne MC, former Chaplin to the Irish Guards.

On the memorial is listed the names of the 582 service personnel (581 men and one woman) who died as a result of World War I. An additional 200 men were subsequently found to have died as a result of the war. Their names do not appear on the memorial.

It is worthy of note that over 50% of those whose names are inscribed on the memorial served in the town’s Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. As I have indicated in my Enniskillen Castle Complex review (more detail there), Enniskillen is the only town in the British Isles to have raised two army regiments bearing the town’s name, in one of its alternative spellings. These were the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards.

Post World War II the inscription on the memorial was amended such that it then also commemorated the local dead of both World Wars.

On Sunday morning the 8th November 1987 thousands of people had gathered around the memorial for the town’s annual Remembrance Day commemorations.

At 10.43am a bomb, planted by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) exploded, without notice, metres from the War Memorial where the crowd had gathered. Eleven people were killed and hundreds wounded, 63 seriously. Thirteen years later Mr Ronnie Hill, the headmaster of the local Enniskillen High School, died having been in a coma since the bombing.

The IRA subsequently apologised for the bombing which was a significant setback to its campaign to forcibly extricate Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and into an all Ireland republic.

In 1991 the names of the eleven people killed in this horrific bombing were added to the War Memorial as was one dove for each.

 

Lest we forget.

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This blog entry is one of a group (loop) of entries based on many trips to Enniskillen. I suggest you continue with my next entry – Princess Diana Peace Cairn – or to start the loop at the beginning go to my introductory entry – “Fare thee well Enniskillen, ………..”

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