June 2018 Vol. 14, Issue 1 THE CANADA TIMES Celebrating little known or forgotten stories of our history Note from the Chair Military Chaplain What’s inside Siege of Jadotville Honouring a Chief New Board Member Newsletter from The Jeanie Johnston Educational Foundation Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem 155, du Buisson, Pierrefonds, P.Q. H8Y 2Z5 Tel.: 514-341-7777 Email: [email protected] Note from the Chair The Walk to the Stone on Sunday, 27th May, 2018 was marked by the excellent turn out and the program Fr.William (Willy) Doyle SJ, MC. created by Victor Boyle and members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians An Honour denied (A.O.H.) deserves first class credit. This is an event put together by the By Leo Delaney Leo Delaney A.O.H. alone. This organization has Father William kept the memories of this tragedy alive and in the hearts of Montrealers. For over Doyle was born in 100 years, the A.O.H. has been the Standard Bearer, Dalkey, Co Dublin reminding us of our responsibility to honor those on 3rd March, 1873, 6,000 souls buried in this Hallowed Ground, a burial ground which is respected across the world. the youngest of seven children. He Speakers representing the Montreal Monument Foundation noted the various steps that had occurred was ordained as a since the acquisition of the Graveyard by Hydro Jesuit in 1907. When Québec, through the offices of the previous Mayor war broke out in of Montreal, Denis Corderre, whose pledges and promises of cooperation and trust, proved again that 1914, he volunteered political trust is another name for distrust. The fact to serve as a Military that Hydro Québec has control over this historic site Chaplain at the front. of the graves of 6,000 souls who lost their lives to He was appointed the cholera and were buried in mass graves at the door of their hoped for promised land, has become to the 8th Royal blurred by platitudes due to the political expediency Irish Fusiliers, 16th of the times. Some speakers even referred to Hydro’s (Irish) Division, in munificence to the Irish, in their planning of the Fr. Willie Doyle SJ desecration of one of the world’s most revered burial November 1915. His grounds. World opinion is not impressed. I imagine first experience of battle was at Loos where he was caught in the German the naming of the Electrical substation “La substation poison gas attack on 26th April. He ministered to the soldiers in the midst of des Irlandais”, puts the Irish in the same category as the Metro station, Lionel Giroux, a somewhat “a the battle, displaying a total disregard for his own safety. He was mentioned controversial figure” in Quebec’s history? The Irish in dispatches but his Colonel’s recommendation for the Military Cross was negotiation team is doing admirable work given the not accepted because he had not been long enough at the front. He was hand that they were dealt, by ensuring that the land th granted them by Hydro is maximized and that the presented with the parchment of merit of the 49 Brigade. substation area is minimized and traffic and future use of the land will be utilized to the best advantage. In May 1916, he had a lucky escape: “I was standing in a trench, quite a The City is also providing technical assistance in long distance from the firing line, a spot almost as safe as Dalkey (his home studies to optimize the approach to the memorial. village) itself, talking to some of my men when we heard in the distance the We were pleased to see Her Honour, Valérie Plante attending an Irish event (Single term Mayoralty is scream of a shell......none of us had calculated that this gentleman had made not in.) up his mind to drop into the trench itself, a couple of paces from where I The inclusion of the Trinitones choir to the program stood. What really took place in the next ten seconds I cannot say. I was added a new dimension and was enthusiastically conscious of a terrific explosion and the thud of falling stones and debris. received and their rendition of Brendan Behan’s I thought the drums of my ears were split by the crash, and I believe I was “Auld Triangle” brought back memories. knocked down by the concussion, but when I jumped to my feet I found that Less enthusiastic was the reception of the Mare o f the two men who had been standing at my left hand, the side the shell fell, Dublin’s lecture, which was insulting to many and poorly conceived. A native son from Kimmage, one were stretched on the ground dead, though I think I had time to give them of Dublin’s less salubrious neighbourhoods. absolution and anoint them. The poor fellow on my right was lying badly In contrast, Chief Christine Zachary-Deom’s delivery wounded in the head; but I myself , though a bit stunned and dazed by the was delightful and spoken from the heart - a credit to suddenness of the whole thing, was absolutely untouched, though covered the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake. with dirt and blood.” Doctor Jason King, representing the Great Famine Roadshow, was extremely satisfied with the response In August 1916, he took part in the fighting at Ginchy and Guillemont. His to the reminiscences of the many who participated by description of Leuze Wood is striking: “The first part of our journey lay sharing their family stories and memories associated through a narrow trench, the floor of which consisted of deep thick mud, with The Irish Famine Migration of 1847. These will be digitized on the great Famine Voices website. and the bodies of dead men trodden under foot. It was horrible beyond This is an Irish Heritage Trust initiative with description, but there was no help for it, and on the half-rotten corpses of the Irish National Famine Museum, Strokestown, our own brave men we marched in silence, everyone busy with his own Roscommon, which had already travelled from Boston, New York, New Haven, Philadelphia and thoughts...... Half an hour of this brought us out in the open into the middle Toronto, garnering tales of the past from Montrealers of the battlefield of some days previous. The wounded, ... had all been and First Nations People, Kahnawake, in English, removed, but the dead lay there stiff and stark with open staring eyes, just French and Mohawk. as they had fallen. Good God, such a sight! I had tried to prepare myself for The St. Patrick’s Square resident’s contingent was a welcome addition to the ceremony this year. Transportation was provided by the Jeanie Johnston . 2 . Educational Foundation. this, but all I had read or pictured gave me little idea of the reality. Some lay as if they were sleeping quietly, others had died in agony or had had the life crushed out of them by mortal fear, while the whole ground, every foot, was littered with heads or limbs, or pieces of torn human bodies. In the bottom of one hole lay a British and a German soldier, locked in a deadly embrace, neither had any weapon but they had fought on to the bitter end. Another couple seemed to have realised that the horrible struggle was none of their making, and that they were both children of the same God; they had died hand-in-hand. A third face caught my eye, a tall, strikingly handsome young German, not more, I should say, than eighteen. He lay there calm and peaceful, with a smile of happiness on his face, as if he had had a glimpse of Heaven before he died. Ah, if only his poor mother could have seen her boy it would have soothed the pain of her broken heart.” In December, 1916, he was transferred to 8th Battalion of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. He met his fellow Jesuit Father Frank Browne who was attached to the 2nd and 9th Dublins. His concern for his men shines through his letters and diaries. “I found the dying lad - he was not much more - so tightly jammed into a corner of the trench that it was almost impossible to get him out. Both legs were smashed, one in two or three places, so his chances of life were small, and there were other injuries as well. What a harrowing picture that scene would have made. A splendid young soldier, married only a month they told me, lying there, pale and motionless in the mud and water with the life crushed out of him by a cruel shell. The stretcher bearers hard at work binding up as well as they may, his broken limbs; round about a group of silent Tommies looking on and wondering when will their turn come. Peace for a moment seems to have taken possession of the battlefield, not a sound save the deep boom of some far-off gun and the stifled moans of the dying boy, while as if anxious to hide the scene, nature drops her soft mantle of snow on the living and dead alike.” He was awarded the Military Cross in January, 1917 for his courage in the Battle of the Somme. He took part in the attack on Wytschaete Ridge in June, 1917. Fr.Browne was transferred to the Irish Guards at the start of August which left Fr. Doyle to service four battalions by himself. He was recommended for the Distinguished Service Order at Wytschaete and the Victoria Cross for his bravery on the battlefield at Frezenberg; celebrating Mass and administering the Sacraments to dying and wounded soldiers, and dragging them to safety, in the heat of battle, without a thought for his own safety.