St. Patrick's Day 2024

Today is St. Patrick's Day and I want to honor the many Irish who have stood side by side with us in various conflicts.

Records indicate that nearly 50% percent of The Continental Army were Irish.

In the Mexican American War there was formed The St. Patrick's Brigade (although some who served were European, not necessarily Irish) The Brigade numbered more than 200 in 1846.

Irish have a long history of fighting with the U.S. perhaps most notably at Gettysburg where monuments to Irish units abound. 200,000 Irish participated in the American Civil War: 180 thousand fought for the Union and 20,000 for the Confederacy. 23, 600 or 20% of the Union Navy were Irish.

Many Irish or of Irish descent served in both WWI and WWII.

27 Irish Soldiers and one Irish Marine never returned from Korea.

And, I have written previously of my failed efforts to find a memorial in Ennis, Ireland to the 30* Irish citizens who came, among the 2500 Irish, to fight in Vietnam and were lost. (I have since learned that it has, in fact been built and I hope to get to Ennis in the future to see it.)

*I have just learned from my friend Declan Hughes of Irish Veterans, Kinsale, Co. Cork, Ireland that the actual number has grown to 32. Declan is the man previously mentioned in my post about The Wall coming to Ireland and researching the names of the Irish heroes lost in 'Nam. I wrote a long post about this and you can read it here. Declan has been a wonderful source of information for me as I pursued this topic. Thank you, Declan!

Here are the 30 names of Irish lost on the memorial at Ennis.

Photo used by permission of Irish Vietnam Memorial Project

Photo used by permission of Irish Vietnam Memorial Project

IRISH WHO LOST THEIR LIVES WITH U.S. FORCES VIETNAM

Sgt Patrick Christopher ‘Christy’ Nevin, US Army

L/Cpl Paul Ivan Maher, US Marine Corps

SP4 Timothy Daly, US Army

L/Cpl Bernard Anthony Freyne, US Marine Corps

SP4 Michael Francis Smith, US Army

SP4 John Coyle, US Army

Cpl Patrick ‘Bob’ Gallagher, US Marine Corps

Sgt/FC Edward Michael Howell, US Army

PFC Maurice Joseph O’Callaghan, US Marine Corps

Cpl Terence Patrick FitzGerald, US Army

PFC John Patrick Collopy, US Army

SP4 Edward Anthony Scully, US Army

Capt Edmond J. Landers, US Army

1/Lt Anthony Paul O’Reilly, US Army

Second Lieutenant Pamela Dorothy Donovan, US Army Nurse Corps

Spec. 5 Michael Noel Faherty,

Cpl Philip Sean Bancroft, US Marine Corps

SP4 Brian Francis McCarthy, US Army

Cpl Sean T. Doran, US Army

L/Cpl Peter Mary Nee, US Marine Corps

1/Lt John Cecil Driver, US Army

RD3 Martin S Doherty, US Navy

Sgt Arthur Fisher, US Marine Corps

 

IRISH KILLED SERVING WITH AUSTRALIANS

Rifleman George Nagle, 9th Royal Australian Regiment

Driver/Signalman David G. Doyle, 3 Cavalry Regiment

Sgt Robert Fleming, 1st RAR and 1st Australian Reinforcement Regiment

Sgt Thomas Birnie, 2nd Royal Australian Regiment

 

IRISH IN CANADIAN UNIFORM (MIA)

Sgt. James Sylvester Byrne, Royal Canadian Army Service Corps

 

IRISH WORKING FOR US AID

Michael Murphy, Office of Public Safety, US AID, Advisor to South Vietnamese Police Field Forces

 

IRISH WORKING FOR AIR AMERICA

Patrick Factna McCarthy, Served with the Marines in Vietnam before joining Air America.

 

Here are the two names added since the memorial was completed

 L/Cpl Joseph Aloysius Clancy, US Marine Corps

MSG Patrick Joseph McCabe, US Army 

In addition, approximately 50% of the names on the Wall are of Irish origin!

I found this article on-line written by the Jim Otto, President of The Ancient Order of Hibernians, Division One

 https://www.stlhibernians.com/History2/usmilitary2.html

So as you raise a pint or two to St. Patrick today, remember those Irish who gave their all and raise one to them as well.

Next time, on the 22nd, we will venture back to Arizona, so meet me there, as always, at 9:00 am.

To see additional memorials from Ireland, or any of the 50 states, please click a state name on the left side of this page.

As always, I will ask anyone who has seen Vietnam memorials that are NOT seen here to please send them to me. I will be more than happy to share your photos and any information you may have about them. Recently Joan from Wisconsin, Tony from Texas, Ron from Florida and a number of others have been kind enough to do this. You make this site better, more complete and I certainly appreciate your input. So, send them to the email on the left od to my personal email: ldddad@comcast.net.

Thank you!