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Written by Oliver Allen RGN
This Sunday the President of Ireland Mr. Michael D. Higgins, will join members of the St. John Ambulance and many other organisations at a special Ecumenical Service at St. Patrick's Cathedral, to remember all those who died during the two World Wars. It is estimated that over 50,000 Irish men and women lost their lives during the Great War alone. Among these were members of the St. John Ambulance Brigade of Ireland, who either joined the armed struggle or worked as Voluntary Aid Detachments at home and abroad.
At the outbreak of World War I, over eight hundred SJAB volunteers signed up for First Aid and nursing duties. These VAD workers rendered care to the sick and injured in makeshift hospitals around the country, and overseas. The St. John Ambulance played an enormous role in caring for the wounded, who returned home on hospital ships. On arrival at Irish ports, St. John Ambulance members were on hand to meet the ships and ready to transport the suffering to make-shift hospitals by ambulance, modified cars and hospital trains.
One Irish SJAB VAD member in a letter home described how he drove his motorised ambulance over German soil for months: "We had three main spheres of operation; evacuating the wounded from the firing line to a Clearing Station, work between the Clearing Station and four Hospitals in the valley behind the trenches, and evacuating from these Hospitals over the pass across the Frontier. The worst part of our work is between the firing line and the Clearing Station".
Many St. John Ambulance personnel lost their lives in the line of duty, during the Great War. One of these members was a nurse, Sophia Violet Barrett of Carrickmines Nursing Division who was returning to duty in France, when the boat she was travelling on, the RMS Leinster, was torpedoed leaving Dun Laoghaire Harbour by a German U-boat.
During the Second World War members of St. John Ambulance also selflessly risked their lives for the sake of others. In 1941 John Doyle, a St. John Ambulance driver recalled driving to the North Strand Bombing and being caught in an explosion. His ambulance was blown twenty-five yards down the road and was extensively damaged; luckily he survived to tell the tale.
In later years the St. John Ambulance continued to support the state services during local and national emergencies.
To this day, our unpaid volunteers provide first aid at hundreds of events throughout Ireland every year, and we have trained thousands of members of the public to render first aid. We have been at the service of the people of Ireland for over 108 years, and as always remain ready in time of peace and emergency.
Lest We Forget
Pro fide, Pro Utilitate Hominum. For the Faith and in the Service of Mankind |
