Claremen and the First World War Exhibition

Cunneen, John, Private, 2nd Bn., Royal Munster Fusiliers

Killed in Action on 27th August, 1914, age 26.

Exhibits: Letter from the Records Office, box for British War and Victory Medals, box for 1914 star, registered envelope, 1914 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal, Memorial Plaque, Letter from King George V

Private John Cunneen was a pre-war soldier in the 2nd battalion, Royal Munster Fusiliers, mobilised at the very start of the First World War in August 1914. His battalion was part of the 1st Division of the British Expeditionary Force that had left for France on 13th August and arrived in the Etreux area on 16th. On 21st August, Cunneen was involved in a march to the Belgian border and a double march of over 40 miles in hot weather on 22nd, the day the British and German Armies first engaged. A full scale German attack that would be known as the Battle of Mons began on the 23rd August causing the British to go in to full retreat over the next three days. Although the battalion had a few minor encounters with the enemy on 24th and 26th August, they remained in reserve.

All that changed on 27th August however, when Cunneen’s battalion was ordered to engage in a rearguard action, only to retreat if ordered or forced to do so, to allow the main body of the British force to escape encirclement. Surrounded on three sides, the 2nd battalion survived repeated German attacks and conducted an organised retreat through the villages of Fesmy and Oisy where they crossed a canal to make a last stand at an orchard on the main road near the village of Etreux. No order to retreat had come (the messenger had been killed en route), and soon the battalion was completely surrounded having successfully held off nine German battalions. At 9.15pm, with ammunition almost exhausted, many seriously wounded and the position hopeless, the remaining four officers and 240 men surrendered. Out numbered 6 to 1, they had held up the German Army for 14 hours. Some stragglers that had become separated from this group managed to make their way back to their own lines.

At some point during the fierce fighting that day Private John Cunneen was killed in action, either at Etreux or earlier in the retreat to the village. On the 28th August the enemy, impressed by the valour shown by the Royal Munster Fusiliers, allowed the survivor’s to bury him and c.100 of his comrades in the orchard very close to the scene of the last stand. Two large graves were dug, one for the officers and the other for the rank and file, and included at least one other Clareman, Private John Hanrahan from Ennis. Several of the wounded that died in subsequent days were also buried there.

Although born in Newmarket-on-Fergus, John Cunneen’s family had moved to the nearby townland of Latoon while he was a child. His family home is long gone, and once stood on the site of the present Ballygirreen roundabout. Private Cuneen’s brother Thomas also served during the First World War and survived, although shrapnel in his brain caused him severe problems in later years. Both men had a least one brother in the IRA. According to family tradition, following an IRA ambush outside Dromoland Castle, Black and Tans surrounded the family home at Latoon (a short distance away), with the intention of burning it in retribution. When an officer became aware that a family member had given his life in the First World War, he took his men away assuming that it was not a Republican house. In the years following his death, his family never talked about Private Cunneen, his medals were hidden away, and the reasons for his joining the Royal Munster Fusilier’s was never discussed and are now forgotten. He was a cousin of Private Thomas Ryan also of Newmarket-on-Fergus who was killed in action on the Western Front in 1916.

The Cunneen collection is particularly interesting: uniquely it includes the cover letter from the Records Office that accompanied the three medals, dated February, 1923, requesting acknowledgement of receipt of the medals and still in pristine condition; the boxes that contained the medals still remains, along with the registered envelope that carried them to Private Cunneen’s family at Latoon. Their good condition indicate that these artefacts were put away soon after they were received and were rarely touched.

Reference: Tadgh Moloney (2006), Royal Munster Fusiliers, Etreux Action