1914-1918 War Service Medal

Private John Montague Kelly, 2nd Bn, Leinster Regiment

Exhibit: British War Medal

This British War Medal was awarded to Private John Montague Kelly (known as Monty), a veteran of the First World War, who was born in Port House, Ruan in1893. It was donated to the museum with an incorrect ribbon.

J.M. Kelly’s father died before his birth and as his widowed mother had four other young children he was sent to Galway to be reared by an aunt. He returned to his family in Ruan as a teenager, and later joined the Leinster Regiment of the British Army. It is said that he served in Egypt during the First World War suggesting that he served with the 6th Battalion, which arrived in Alexandria in September 1917 and engaged in fighting against the Turks in Southern Palestine until May 1918, before being redeployed to France. This battalion was part of the 10th (Irish) Division, which had been decimated at Gallipoli in 1915. The battalion was later deployed in Salonkia and at Mudros, an allied port base on the Aegean island of Lemnos, prior to being sent to Egypt.

After the war he returned to Ruan suffering badly from shell-shock, (what we would now call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), a term coined by doctors during the First World War to describe a range of physical and psychological symptoms that resulted in bizarre behaviour. Physical effects ranged from trembling, sweating, insomnia, diarrhea, and minor twitches to paralysis, blindness, and muteness. Victims also experienced anguish, anxiety, and the inability to control their emotions. They were often mocked and labeled cowards by their peers, causing many to desert the army. However, as more and more officers fell victim to the syndrome, it came to be recognized as a legitimate medical disorder.

When he returned to Ruan neither his family nor community understood the condition. Like so many other families and communities at the time they were probably baffled by the returning soldier’s behaviour and became unsympathetic and frustrated over time as he failed to rehabilitate himself into daily life. However, unlike his counterparts in Britain, Monty did not return to a country where peace prevailed, and no doubt this aggravated his already disturbed state: at the time of the raid on Ruan Barracks by the IRA in 1920, he went out on the street to see what the commotion was. He was shot in the ankle by either the Auxillaries or the Black and Tans and then taken to Ennis barracks. His mother, knowing her son’s condition, and fearing that he may antagonize his captors who had a growing reputation for cruelty, followed them into Ennis and successfully negotiated his release later that day.

John ‘Monty’ Kelly lived in Ruan for a time before moving to Lisdoonvarna to live with a cousin. He never married and is buried in Doolin.

Ref: 2000.319

First World War Collection
Military Collection
Numismatics Collection
Insigna Collection