A small group of civilians and soldiers from Kilkenny are in France today for the unveiling of a memorial to those who died there 104 years ago this weekend.
The Battle of Le Pilly in 1914 saw around 177 members of the 2nd Battalion killed over the course of two days.
At least 13 of those were from Kilkenny.
Speaking to KCLR News, Irish Times journalist and author of a book on the 1st World War, Wherever the Firing Line Extends: Ireland and the Western Front, Ronan McGreevy says 34-year-old Captain James Smithwick was among them:
“He had been a Boer War veteran, he had been in the army quite a long time. He actually survived Le Pilly and was taken to a Prisoner of War camp but he died of his wounds the following year.
“He was a very, very prominent person. His father had been the Parnellite MP, John Francis Smithwick in Kilkenny. So he was the most famous Kilkenny person who died.
“Another one was a guy called William Aylward from Ballyhale. He had been in the British Colonial Army. There are 13 in total that I have counted from Kilkenny.”
Pauline O’Keefe’s grandfather James O’Keefe fought and survived the battle of Le Pilly and she is over there for today’s ceremony.
She told KCLR how her grandfather survived:
“He was blown head-over-heels back into his trench. A German soldier running over my grandfather’s trench saw a boot sticking up in the air so he must have thought to himself, ‘where’s there’s one boot, maybe there’s two boots.’
“Boots were a very important part of the uniform. So he went to pull out the boot and he pulled my grandfather out instead.
“My grandfather was taken prisoner and he was marched back to the nearest train station. He was taken away to Germany for four years where he worked in a Prisoner of War camp.”
