Posts Tagged ‘Irish Brigade’
Full house in Omagh for All My Brothers film
A full house and an appreciative audience saw the fourth episode of All My Brothers, the Story of the Irish Brigade in the Second World War at the Strule Arts Theatre in Omagh on 14 January. The film covered the role of the Irish Brigade in the Adriatic Campaign in October-December 1943 and in front-line…
Read MoreEyewitness recalls Maletto battle
Vincenzo Gangi, who celebrates his 90th birthday in October, told the Irish Brigade website how he saw machine gunners positioned on a rooftop in his home town of Maletto shoot down an allied plane during the build-up to the Irish Brigade assault on the town in the early hours of 12th August 1943. Then a…
Read MoreCommemorations in Maletto
The Irish Brigade website were most honoured to be invited to attend a Service of Remembrance and Conference in Maletto, on the north western slopes of Mount Etna, that covered events in the town during the Sicily campaign of July and August 1943. After being attendant at a service at the town’s War Memorial, the…
Read MorePiper Albert Jeffrey at the Vatican
Excerpt of The Wartime Memoirs of Albert “Jeff” Jeffrey. The 2 LIR’s visit to the Pope in June 1944 is well documented but nothing has been written of the Band’s performance. On arriving we did the usual trick of counter-marching on arrival at any church, so as to be facing the following marchers who then…
Read MoreSergeant Thomas Renshaw
We have recently been contacted by the grandson of Sergeant Thomas Renshaw, who served with both the Royal Irish Fusiliers and the London Irish Rifles during the Second World War. In his note to us, Darren Russell explained that his grandfather had served with the 2nd Battalion London Irish Rifles throughout the Tunisian campaign but…
Read MoreFusilier Edward Graham – From County Durham to Maletto in Sicily.
We are absolutely honoured to confirm that a re-dedication ceremony for Fusilier Edward Graham will take place at Catania CWGC cemetery on Wednesday 4th October 2017. After years of exhaustive research undertaken by Fusilier Graham’s twin sons, Edward and Sydney, they recently learnt that the CWGC and the MoD have confirmed that the “Known Unto…
Read MoreMajor Colin Gibbs MC- lionhearted London Irish company commander
Michael Gibbs and Charles Ward with Edmund and Richard O’Sullivan at the London Irish Rifles depot in Camberwell in March 2016 The Irish Brigade website was delighted to join together recently with Michael Gibbs and Charles Ward to remember the time when Michael’s father, Captain (later Major) Gibbs, witnessed the attestations of Charles and Edmund…
Read MoreSergeant Edward Charles Mayo MM: champion recruit and natural leader
Edward (Eddie) Mayo, who worked at Ford in Dagenham before the Second World War, was conscripted into the 2nd Battalion, London Irish Rifles (2 LIR) on 18th October 1939 and quickly emerged as one of the the battalion’s star recruits. Eddie Mayo and Mary Gibbs on their wedding day During the extended period that the battalion…
Read MoreThe Irishmen who fought at Cassino
More than 100,000 men from the island of Ireland served with the Allied Forces during the Second World War. When the 38th (Irish) Infantry Brigade was formed in early 1942, a significant number of the men serving within its three constituent infantry battalions were either Irish born or had direct ancestry connections to Ireland. Brigadier…
Read MoreLondon Irishman Charles Ward remembers the events of 1939
On 18 October 1939, three 20-year old men reported to Liverpool Street train station to respond to call up papers for them to join the British Army. They were met on the station concourse that morning by Captain Colin Gibbs, then Adjutant of the 2nd Battalion, London Irish Rifles (2 LIR), who duly witnessed the attestation…
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