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Dunmore East during the Emergency

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  • Dunmore East during the Emergency

    Hello all.

    I am trying to find out a bit about the role of the Army in Dunmore East during the Emergency and I would love to hear from anybody who might have served there at the time.

    It was one of the few Irish ports which British trawlers could officially put into during the war to shelter from bad weather without the fear of being interned. My late uncle, Gerald Bruen, who volunteered for the duration, was based there for some time during that period. I remember him once telling me that there was a healthy barter system in operation whereby butter, eggs, bacon, etc were exchanged for coal, oil and fish. (I suppose they were all steam trawlers then). He had another story about a lorried detachment travelling from the Curragh Camp to Dunmore in early 1942 I think it was. Rationing would have been biting fairly severely at that stage of the war with the uboats running rampant in the Atlantic. The weather was atrocious with heavy snow and low visibility. The lead lorry unintentionally knocked over a donkey and killed it. As there was a butcher among the troops, the donkey was heaved into the back of the lorry and provided fresh meat for the garrison in Dunmore for a couple of days. He always remembered that donkey stew with relish. (Gerry's father enlisted as a private in the Connaught Rangers in the 1890s and, having reached the rank of Sergeant-Major, was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the field in 1915 in France, ending the war with the rank of Major and the Military Cross.)

    Anyway, I would be delighted to receive any info or pointers as to where to look for more about Dunmore at that time.

    Thanks, Arthur Boland

  • #2
    Donkey Stew? I'll never complain about Ration Pack sweet and sour pork again.:D
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    Say NO to violence against Women

    Originally posted by hedgehog
    My favourite moment was when the
    Originally posted by hedgehog
    red headed old dear got a smack on her ginger head

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    • #3
      Check out Saturday's obituaries. One of the subjects, a Mr Bruen, was CO there in the Emergency.
      sigpic
      Say NO to violence against Women

      Originally posted by hedgehog
      My favourite moment was when the
      Originally posted by hedgehog
      red headed old dear got a smack on her ginger head

      Comment


      • #4
        That was my uncle actually - I thought he was only 93 not 96. His father was originally from Sligo & enlisted in 2nd Bn Connaught Rangers in 1895 as a private, retiring as a major in 1919. Their colours are hung in St. Nicholas' Church in Galway - looking rather tattered these days.

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        • #5
          Their colours are hung in St. Nicholas' Church in Galway - looking rather tattered these days.


          That must be an older set of colours. The last colours of all the southern Irish Regts were laid up in Windsor in 1922. Are you doing a family history?
          sigpic
          Say NO to violence against Women

          Originally posted by hedgehog
          My favourite moment was when the
          Originally posted by hedgehog
          red headed old dear got a smack on her ginger head

          Comment

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