It is a great honour for me to pay a tribute to Martin O’Meara on the occasion of this brief display of his Victoria Cross in his native parish of Lorrha & Dorrha.
The World War 1 hero, who served with the Australian Imperial Force in France in 1916, revealed extraordinary courage in the battle of Pozieres Heights as he retrieved the wounded from no-man’s land despite intense artillery and machine-gun fire. He showed throughout an utter contempt of danger and undoubtedly saved many lives.
He was awarded the Victoria Cross as a result of eye-witness accounts of his heroism by four officers. They vouched that Private O’Meara did his work while being severely shelled, carrying the wounded to the dressing station with the utmost fearlessness and returning to No Man’s Land repeatedly in pursuance of his duties as a scout. They estimated that in the course of the time he rescued not less than twenty men.
Martin O’Meara returned to London to receive his Victoria Cross from King George V on July 21 1917. It was the most important investiture of the war at which 32 V.C.s were awarded. The newspapers gave the occasion plenty of pictorial coverage on July 22 and ‘Private O’Meara of the Australian Infantry’ is given due prominence on the front page of the Sunday Pictorial.
This was the high point in the life of a modest and unassuming man, born in the townsland of Lissernane, the second youngest of eleven children, on November 3, 1885. His parents, Michael O’Meara and Margaret Connors, farmed twelve acres. We don’t have much information about his childhood, where he went to school, when he got his first communion or was confirmed, except that he is listed as a ‘scholar’ in the 1901 census. We learn that he got a job as a tree feller. The 1911 census has him living in South Kilkenny, occupied as a wood worker. His prospects of earning a living may not have been great so he decided to go to Australia late in 1911, when he was aged 26 years.
This must have been a major decision. Having lived a quiet life in an isolated rural setting it must have taken enormous courage to leave his roots and travel 15,000 kilometres to Perth. He didn’t have the fare to travel the distance so he went first to Liverpool, where he worked for a short time and found a ship that was about to sail to Perth. The ship needed a stoker and the quickest way to get there was to work his passage. ‘The hardest task in my life,’ he was to say later, ‘was shovelling coal to the boilers on that three-months’ voyage.’ It probably prepared him for the abnormal conditions he worked under later at Pozieres. Having spent a couple of years in South Australia, he moved to the Perth area in 1914 and worked as a sleeper-cutter on a new line of railway through the bush at Collie, east of the city.
The next big decision in his life was to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force in August 1915. He joined the 16th Battalion with the rank of Private. We get more information on him from his application form. He stated he was Catholic and single. He was of dark complexion, 5’ 7” in height and 10 stone weight with a chest measurement of 40 inches. He gave his occupation as a sleeper-hewer. His parents were dead, his mother had died the previous April, and he gave his next of kin as his sister, Alice O’Meara, Rathcabbin.
The 16th Battalion of the AIF embarked from Freemantle on December 22, 1915. After training in Egypt in early 1916, the Battalion proceeded overseas from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force in France. They disembarked at Marseilles on June 9 and immediately marched through the city to the railway station for entraining to the Front. This journey lasted nearly 60 hours, punctuated with stops at which they were greeted by a very friendly French population, who showered them with food and drink. We have no account of how Martin responded to this adulation. As soon as they arrived at the Front they began to prepare for combat as preparations were already in hand for the Somme offensive.
Commander-in-Chief, General Haig, hoped that by bombarding the German lines for a week beforehand with heavy artillery, the allied forces would destroy all the defensive fortifications of the enemy. Then it would be a simple matter of the soldiers coming out of the trenches and crossing ‘No Man’s Land’ to mop up any of the enemy still alive. In fact the artillery shells had no effect on the German concrete bunkers and the barbed wire just blew up in the air and came down a more tangled mess that before. As the Allied soldiers advanced in straight lines across No Man’s Land they were mercilessly raked with machine gun fire. Twenty thousand men were killed and fifty thousand taken prisoner on the first day. This was the hellish theatre in which Martin O’Meara had to operate and from which he was lucky to survive. As a result of his heroic efforts he was awarded the Victoria Cross.
News of Martin’s Victoria Cross was reported in the Nenagh Guardian on September 16. On the previous day the members of the North Tipperary County Committee of Agriculture passed the following resolution: ‘That we, the members of the County Committee of Agriculture wish to express to Martin O’Meara, V.C., our great admiration of his bravery and to congratulate him on gaining the VC, the highest honour that can be offered to any soldier. We, as Tipperarymen, are proud of him and hope soon to give him a suitable welcome and show our appreciation of the honour he has won. We hope that he will soon be recovered enough to return to his native county.’
The wish for Martin’s recovery by the Committee of Agriculture refers to a wounds he received during the hectic exploits in August, which led to his VC award. Following this injury he spent a couple of weeks in hospital in London He was to be wounded on two further occasion. In April 2017 he received a shrapnel wound to his face, and later, in August, he received further shrapnel wounds to the buttock, right thigh and back . These were all physical wounds from which he recovered. Unfortunately, the mental injuries he suffered from his exploits were to have much more lasting effects.
Following his release from hospital at the end of September he got a fortnight’s leave in the middle of October and availed himself the opportunity to return to his native place. One writer describes his homecoming in this manner: ‘The modesty of the man is to be seen in the mode of his homecoming. His family expected him but did no know the exact date of his arrival. He got off the train at Birr Station and walked home – about five miles -along the disused Birr-Portumna railway line, which passed near his home. No one recognised him at the station or along the way. He opened the door of his home and walked in, surprising his brother and sister inside. At the end of his leave he returned almost as quietly as he had come.’
Martin attended a meeting in Borrisokane on October 24, called for the purpose of making a suitable presentation to him. According to the newspaper report he thanked the committee for arranging the presentation on his behalf.
He stated that he entered the war in the belief that it was his duty to answer the call and assist the Allies in their great struggle, and any distinction he had won was in the discharge of his duty to his country, and he would be delighted to divide that distinction with each and every one of them. There were other Irishmen who had gallantly distinguished themselves and he hoped and trusted that ere long the war would be brought to a close with a triumphant victory for the Allies.
The presentation to Martin O’Meara took place on November 24. A platform was erected in the Lorrha ball alley and a big crowd turned up. But the V.C. winner failed to arrive. The reason given was that he had already returned to London, having fully recovered from his wounds and he eventually rejoined his battalion in France on December 22. The meeting was chaired by Benjamin Trench. The presentation was made to Martin’s sister and brothers. General Hickie presented a gold watch to Alice O’Meara and announced that there was a balance over from the £150 collected from the public. It was against the regulations to give money to a soldier on active service but the money would be placed in the hands of trustees.
As already stated Martin O’Meara was wounded a couple of times during 1917. Following his shrapnel wounds in August he ended up in Bath War Hospital from which he was granted furlough in October. He used the occasion to return to Lorrha for a couple of weeks. His experience was much different to that of twelve months previously. This was due to two factors. The political climate in Ireland had changed during 1917 and Martin’s exploits in the war were looked at askance in the new nationalism. Also, he was beginning to show some of the signs of insanity, which was eventually to rule his life. He insisted on wearing the AIF uniform and the famous slouch hat and the locals came to regard him as an oddity and an outsider. Eventually he got the message that he wasn’t part of the community anymore and returned to his battalion earlier than intended.
There is little joy in the remainder of his story. Martin got promotion to Corporal in March and to Acting Sergeant soon after, but reverted to permanent grade of Corporal at his own request on April 15. He was promoted Sergeant on August 30. As well as the Victoria Cross he won a British War Medal and a Victory Medal. He commenced his return to Australia on September 15 and disembarked on November 10. Soon after he was admitted to hospital and diagnosed as ‘suffering from Delusional Insanity, with hallucinations of hearing and sight, as extremely homicidal and suicidal and requires to be kept in restraint. He is not hopeful of his recovery in the near future.’ He was admitted to Claremont Mental Hospital as an insane patient on January 3, 1919, He was discharged from the army on November 30 of the same year and died on December 20, 1935 after a harrowing sixteen years in hospital.
There is a detailed report in the newspapers of his funeral to Karrakatta cemetery, near Freemantle, on December 23, 1935. Old comrades, representatives of various military units and members of the Federal and State Parliaments gathered to pay tribute to the late Sergeant Martin O’Meara, VC, whose remains were buried with full military honours. The coffin was draped with an Australian flag and on top of it were placed the dead soldier’s hat, decorations and side arms. The only Irish dimension was provided by the officiating priest, Father John Fahey, from Glenough, Clonoulty, who had himself served in the war and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for gallantry under fire. After a short service he spoke of Sergeant O’Meara’s heroism in battle and his long period of suffering since his return from active service. At the conclusion of the service three volleys were fired and a bugler sounded the last post and reveille.
And such, briefly, are the important facts in the life of this extraordinary man. For many years after his death his heroic life and deeds were forgotten in the changed political climate in Ireland. Because his extraordinary courage and superhuman exploits were revealed under a foreign flag, they were not only forgotten but frowned upon. Happily this has changed in the past decade and this people of Lorrha have made great efforts to have Martin’s achievements recognised and honoured. The outstanding bravery and heroism in the face of danger and the risks he took to save the lives of his fellow soldiers are now getting the recognition they deserve. The symbol of his greatness is the Victoria Cross and it’s wonderful and fitting to have it in the parish of his birth, for however brief a period. Thank you.