And Faith, Never a Dumas Hero was a Marker to This Sergeant of the
Irish Guards
He got the habit and trick of it early they say. He played outside
the home cottage in Macroom, about forty miles from the city of Cork,
charging imaginary foes, stick in hand, with so much vigor that the
plump hens scuttled to cover. His mother at the door of the cottage
demanded,
“An’ what is it ye are doin’ now, Mike?”
And the curly-haired youngster replied:
“I’m a sodger.”
Twenty years later the same mother stood outside the same cottage door
in Macroom listening to the almost unbelievable story of a messenger
who had dashed from Cork city by motor-car. Her son—her Mike—had won
the great war medal. She heard how the world was ringing with the
immortal exploit of Sergeant Michael O’Leary, V.C. Poems were being
written about him. He had received an ovation in London such as kings
might envy. And all this was no more than the brave Irish Guardsman
deserved, for with his unaided strong right arm he captured an enemy
position, and of ten Germans who stood in his path he killed eight and
took the remaining two prisoners....
O’Leary was sent to the front in November, 1914. Mr. Leask has told the
story.
All around the La Bassée district fierce fighting had raged since
October. The 1st Battalion of the Irish Guards, in common with other
regiments, now experienced the severities of trench warfare. At the end
of January they were stationed near the La Bassée brickfield, and the
Germans were subjecting them to a withering fire.
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