THE lives of 26 Republic of Ireland-born soldiers who were awarded the Victoria Cross will be commemorated by the British Government.
From August, and for the next four years of the First World War centenary, hundreds of specially designed paving stones will be installed across Britain.
The Department for Communities and Local Government says it is now looking at ways to commemorate those recipients without a strong local connection here.
“No hero will be forgotten,” a spokesperson said. “We are working on plans to ensure that all heroes who were awarded the Victoria Cross, but who were born overseas, are commemorated. Full details will be announced in due course.”
A total of 628 Victoria Crosses were awarded during the First World War – 363 to English-born recipients, 44 to those born in Scotland and 15 to Wales.
A total of 32 Victoria Crosses were awarded in pre-partition Ireland, eight to the North of Ireland and a further 24 to the Republic of Ireland.
Two others Dubliner Claude Nunney and Cork man Edward Mannock, who are listed as having a joint place of birth – Hastings and Brighton respectively, bring the total to 26.
London Architect Charlie MacKeith from London designed the paving stones, which will feature an electronic reader to scan with a smartphones to discover more about their local recipient.
The first paving stone will be laid in August to represent the date that the first two Victoria Crosses were awarded - in August 1914 to Charles Garforth of Willesden Green and Sidney Godley of East Grinstead.
The commemoration proposal was originally to apply only to those born in Britain and the North of Ireland.
The move to include all Victoria Cross recipients, including those born in the Republic, came after a Catholic school in Lancashire objected to the fact that one of its past pupils, Co. Westmeath-born Lieutenant Maurice Dease, would be excluded.
He was the first British soldier to be posthumously awarded a VC on August 23, 1914 when he continued to man a machine gun despite being shot four times at the Battle of Mons in Belgium.
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