One hundred years ago today towns and villages all across Ireland marked the first anniversary of the Armistice or the end of the First World War in November 1918. It is interesting now looking back at the enthusiasm which existed for these armistice events, illustrating that although the War of Independence had begun in January 1919, public opinion had not yet changed. On the previous day, the 10th November, the Evening Herald newspaper, amongst others, carried advertisements from the King, ordering people to observe two minutes silence at 11am in memory of those who had died during the war.

In Cork the sailors and soldiers observed the armistice and most of the workers of the city stopped work, while at the Curragh in county Kildare a great military event was laid on to commemorate the end of the War. Some detailed accounts survive of this first armistice commemoration, among them that at Mountmellick, County Laois. Here the Leinster Express newspaper recalled that At 11am all the unemployed members of the association assembled at the club and proceeded to the RC Church where they spent some time in remembrance of the Mountmellick men, which numbered upwards of 70 men….One of the scrolls which they carried read ‘Lest we Forget’, while another read ‘We commemorate the 71 Mountmellick men who gave their lives to preserve our homes. Comrades keep the home fires burning’… One of the features of the Mountmellick display was the man who had lost both of his feet in the war and was in a tricycle, and the car which carried soldiers who were unable to walk. Things would soon change in Ireland and when the armistice was next celebrated numbers were far lower in towns such as Mountmellick and elsewhere. Source newspaper:  www.irishnewsarchives.com Download: Cork Examiner 12.November.1919 Leinster Express, 15 November 1919; Irish Examiner, 12 November 1919 #armistice #ww1 #history