Madam, - I had occasion to write to this page some years ago (March 2nd, 1998) in support of some of your readers who were making a plea for a permanent memorial to Francis Ledwidge at the Irish National War Gardens, Islandbridge. I am delighted to announce that, following a lengthy campaign, such a memorial now exists in the form of a plaque, commissioned and sponsored by our Society.
To all save their families, the 50,000 Irishmen who died fighting the Germans and their cohorts in the first World War are today forgotten, written out of history. Their names are unfamiliar to the general public.
But there is one name we all know: that of Ireland's most renowned poet and soldier, Francis Ledwidge of Meath, who was trained in Inchicore at Richmond Barracks. Ledwidge will represent these men, giving them a voice, and that is why, this is not just a plaque to him, it is a plaque to the Irish at Gallipoli, to the Irish at the Somme, to the Irish wherever they have fallen on behalf of Ireland, as represented by the poet and his works.
The Minister of State for the Department of Finance, Mr Tom Parlon, will formally unveil the Ledwidge Plaque at the Irish National War Memorial Gardens, Islandbridge, Dublin, on Thursday, February 3rd at 4 p.m. For further information please contact 085 142 5752. - Yours, etc.,
LIAM O'MEARA, Chairman, The Inchicore Ledwidge Society, Emmet Crescent, Inchicore, Dublin 8.