Sir, – You report (Home News, January 27th) that every Irish-born first World War soldier awarded the Victoria Cross is to have a "paving stone laid in his honour, paid for by the British government" in his home town. The list will doubtless include Inchigeela-born Michael O'Leary VC (see entry in Dictionary of Irish Biography) who was featured at the time in a recruiting poster jingle, racy of the soil: "Yerra, glory, Mike O'Leary, you're the hero of Macroom/ Oh glory, Mike O'Leary, sure you spelt the Kaiser's doom!"
To personalise the colourful local endorsement, the hero’s father, Daniel O’Leary, was invited to speak from the recruiting platform in the Macroom town square. According to the version long cherished in the local tradition, he ringingly exhorted his listeners to enlist “because if the Germans come over here, they’ll be a lot worse than the English, bad and all as they were”. He was dropped from the team forthwith.
I assume the laying of a paving stone will be a public and “reconciliatory” ceremony. I look forward to the occasion with great interest, and no little glee. – Yours, etc,
JOHN A MURPHY,
Douglas Road, Cork.