Items belonging to a chaplain who was denied a Victoria Cross after his death in the First World War due to the “triple disqualification of being an Irishman, a Catholic and a Jesuit” have gone on display for the first time in Dublin (Aaron Rogan writes).
The National Museum has opened a Battle of Messines exhibition focusing on what happened to Irish soldiers on the Western Front in 1917.
Gloves, medals and other artefacts of Fr William Doyle, a chaplain from Dublin who proved popular with Irish soldiers during the Battle of the Somme in 1916, and later at Messines, feature heavily in the exhibition. Fr Willie was killed in action at Passchendaele in August 1917 at the age of 44.
The Dalkey priest’s body was never recovered and it was argued after his death that he was denied a Victoria Cross due to the fact that he was Irish, a Catholic and a Jesuit. The reason given at the time was that he had not served long enough at the front.
Parts of his uniform, which were distributed as relics after his death, a pair of gloves and his medals feature in the exhibition along with a letter from General Sir William Bernard Hickie, the commander-in-chief of the 16th (Irish) Division, to his family. General Hickie described Fr Doyle as “one of the bravest men who fought or served out here”.
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The exhibition also includes a baby’s bottle used to feed Daniel Dael, from Ypres, after his mother who had fled with him to England had died. There is also an exhibit on the 3,000 refugees from Belgium who moved to Cavan and Monaghan during the war.
A motorcycle known as the “trusty Triumph” is on loan from the Irish Veteran and Vintage Motorcycle Club. The Triumph Model H, manufactured in 1918, is similar to the 1915 model which was used in the war.