Private Patrick O’Regan from Commons in Cork was a member of the Royal Munster Fusiliers (also known as ‘the dirty shirts’) for the duration of the first world war. His job in the army was to dig the trenches in France. Sadly, Patrick O’Regan did not come home to a hero’s welcome – rather he was rejected and shown the door by his wife and family and wandered the streets of Cork “down and out”. He would meet his young grandson on the street and always stopped for a chat during which he promised young Patrick his war medals. He was true to his word. || 1. Photograph of Private Patrick O'Regan 2. Family photograph (left to right) of: Margaret Buttimer, Nora O'Regan, Maud O'Regan, Terence Long (brother of Patrick Long. His wife, two daughters and grandson 3. Patrick O'Regan's daughter 4. Medals : Victory medal for the Great War for Civilization, George V Medal, 1914-15 Star 5. Birth certificate of Patrick Regan 6. Service record of Private Patrick O'Regan, Labour Corps

Memorabilia of Lt. Albert Augustan Healy

Certificate of Identity Army documenation Photographs? || My father Lance Corporal Christopher Scriven (no. 22242). I remember growing up in Cobh (Queenstown), Co. Cork. I recall a beautiful, wondferful framed picture which hung in our hall, at 16, St. Colemans Square. Its beautiful silken emboidery threads shone in the sunlight and night light. I watched my mother polish it unitl it shone with pride. In my early teens I learnt to embroider at school and so one day I asked my Mum whose fingers had made this work of art. She took me into our sitting-room and told me the following story - My Dad had joined the Irish Dublin Fusiliers in June 1915. he was in the Somme enduring horrific conditions in the trenches and became very ill in 1918. His body swelled up and he was isolated in a tent as his condition wasn't daignosed until a ship arrived in France to take him back to England to be treated. He spent a long time recovering from a renal condition in the Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley, and so in convalesence he learned to embroider and worked as a hospital orderly until 1922, due to government changes. When he returned he was employed as a barber (his father's trade) in the three Harbour Ports. When they were passed back to the Éire goverment in 1938 he got a reference letter signed by the Garrison Adjutant R.C. Cobbold. He was entitled to a pension from the British Legion who had an agent here in Cobh, but my beloved Dad would not accept it in sympathy for all the colleagues he lost in the Battle of the Somme. We had a school in Cobh commonly called he Pension School - private education by the Sisters of Mercy called St. Marys. The Sterling pension was collected every month by Cobh residents but though it would have been a great asset when the 5 of his children, Dad couldn't take it. Deep down he never recovered from the loss of his friends whom he had served with in the Dublin Fusiliers for 3 and a half years, and never spoke of it. Dad worked in his final years with the Naval Base, Haulbowline as a runner/clerk and died in February 1972 from a massive myocardial infection all originating from his kidneys/blood pressure which he suffered all his life from the trenches. He dided unrecognised because he never spoke of the War and to this day I feel he never will, except by his family. No one in Cobh knew but his friends. (Pat O;Keeffe, August 1985). Included here are Certificate of Identity and army documentation of Christopher Scriven. 18th June Dublin enlisting 22nd August 1918 Royal Victorian Hispital || || Official document || Character certificate of Christopher Scriven, Royal Dublin Fusiliers