Ballinode Parochial Hall Photo: © Michael Fisher

Many thanks to all those who attended my talk tonight in Ballinode, County Monaghan, about a soldier who died in the Great War, Private Robert Hamilton. Thanks to Claire Noble of Northern Sound for recording an interview with me about the subject in The Wider View programme this afternoon. The interest shown by people who attended who came from Holywood (Co. Down) and Castleblayney as well as the parish of Tydavnet shows that there are many other similar stories out there waiting to be told. Thanks are also due to Jonathan Maguire in the Royal Irish Fusiliers Museum in Armagh, who helped me to find records relating to Private Hamilton of the 9th Battallion, Royal Irish Fusiliers, known as the Faugh-a-Ballaghs or Blacker’s Boys (see the excellent record by Nick Metcalfe, a great source of information).