Kildare WWI soldier to be honoured by French mayor

A French mayor is to travel to Cork to honour a Co Kildare soldier who helped liberate his village during the First World War.

More than 1,200 men from the 16th (Irish) Division of the British Army were killed in the liberation of Guillemont and its neighbour Ginchy in the Somme in northern France on September 3 and 9, 1916.

Two Irish men, Lieutenant John Holland of Athy and Private Thomas Hughes of Castleblayney, Co Monaghan, were awarded the Victoria Cross for their part in the battle for Guillemont.

Didier Samain, the mayor of Guillemont, will pay tribute to the Irish forces when he attends the inaugural Thomas Kent History Symposium in Fermoy at the end of this month.

The organiser of the event, Mary Colette Sheehan, told the Irish Examiner that the symposium is about forging links and exploring important events in our history.

"The connection between Guillemont and Fermoy was always there. But no one from Fermoy connected with the mayor - and no one locally had any sense of its significance in the Battle of the Somme or the gratitude of the people (to Ireland)," she said.

"It has been waiting 102 years to be forged."

The Thomas Kent History Symposium, with the blessing of the Kent Family, is made possible through a grant from The Heritage Council of Ireland, Cork County Council, and the support of the School of History in UCC and Fermoy Forum.