Thurles Forgets On Remembrance Sunday.

Extract from the poem “Aftermath” by Siegfried Sassoon.

“Do you remember the dark months you held the sector at Mametz.
The nights you watched and wired and dug and piled sandbags on parapets?
Do you remember the rats; and the stench,
Of corpses rotting in front of the front-line trench,
And dawn coming, dirty-white, and chill with a hopeless rain?
Do you ever stop and ask, ‘Is it all going to happen again?
Have you forgotten yet?
Look up, and swear by the green of the spring that you’ll never forget.“

The Irish General Election will take place on November 29th 2024.
This week local people on social media were extremely reticent about the direction in which Thurles town was heading, describing same as “A dead horse town”, and “A sh#t hole with nothing in it”.
Despite 90% of second level students educated in the town, moving on into third level education and following diploma courses, some people saw the idea of a proposed Drive-Thru McDonald’s as “giving huge employment” and putting Thurles “back on the map”.

(This upcoming General Election will now give these same commentators an opportunity to vote. But most likely they will once again vote for the same ineffectual lunatics to take over this picturesque rural Tipperary asylum, for yet another 4 years. Even worse, they will protest, voting for persons who were once members of, or, at the very least, known associates of proscribed organisations.)

But perhaps the social media comment, which I felt had the most ring of truth, read as follows, “There’s nothing left in the town”. (Thurles).

With tomorrow being Remembrance Sunday (Sun November 10th 2024), a day on which we commemorate the anniversary of the end of hostilities in World War I (1918) and commemorate the contribution made by Irish soldiers in that war; allow me to elucidate further.
On April 16th, 2020, we wrote about Thurles born Cpl. John Cunningham VC (Victoria Cross), under the heading “Lest Thurles Forgets Cpl. John Cunningham VC”.
Please First Read the Post in full Here.

Following from that, we were contacted very recently (October 27th, 2024) by a family descendant of Cpl. John; namely Ms Susannah Cunningham, who kindly brought us up to date, as to the whereabouts of his missing Victoria Cross.

Ms Cunningham wrote; “The Victoria Cross medal is now in the Imperial War Museum in London, in the Lord Ashcroft Gallery. Lord Ashcroft collected Victoria and George Crosses and paid for the dedicated museum within a museum. The medal was on loan, but I noticed it had been bought by Lord Ashcroft recently. It is an excellent display and in a place that it will be appreciated, as is his grave in France, which is well attended, but a shame the medal is both out of Ireland and has been sold. I don’t know what happened to John’s service medals or Patrick’s WWI medals.
My father-in-law, Freddie Cunningham, is John’s nephew, via his younger brother Joseph.”

As Thurles residents will be well aware, a plaque commemorating Cpl. John Cunningham VC; positioned at were his family home once existed, [at the junction of Sarsfield Street and Stradavoher (R659)], was erected, at considerable expense, many years ago, by the then existing North Tipperary Council, with the necessary permissions granted by the property owner.
Some 18 months or so ago, it was deliberately demolished by a jack hammer, without, as far as I am aware, any public consultation or debate. Its absence went unnoticed by the powers that be, latter who currently rule over us. (See Photograph above.)
Following enquiries made, I am now promptly informed by Ms Sharon Scully, (Administrator Thurles Municipal District Council) that, quote “I can confirm that Tipperary County Council were not involved in the removal of the Cunningham Plaque”.

This being the accepted case, (which I believe); I would like to know where the removed plaque can be currently located, so that same can be re-erected at an alternative location nearby, which does not cause either interference or disorderliness.

I now also hope, nay, expect, that Thurles Municipal District Council officials and recently elected councillors, will follow up on finding and re-locating same.