What impresses people in O'Leary's deed is not only his bravery but
the triumphant success with which he carried out the whole act. Other
soldiers may have displayed more self-sacrifice and endurance, but not
one of them appears to have done more for his side by one individual
act of bravery than O'Leary.
It is the dashing quality of his deed that wins admiration and this
quality, it is to be noted, is peculiarly Irish. He is credited by his
admirers with having shot eight men in eight seconds. His quickness
must have been phenomenal, and here again he showed a peculiarly Irish
trait.
How one man could have shot eight soldiers, when all eight of them
were armed and many of their comrades were only a few yards away, must
appear a mystery to many. The Germans were perhaps retiring hastily
from their positions, but they had magazine rifles in their hands and
fired many shots at the British.
Why did they not get O'Leary, who was running out alone ahead of his
companions? He must have been amazingly lucky, as well as amazingly
quick.
Then it is almost equally astonishing that he could have shot eight men
in a few moments while running. The best explanation of this is that
the British soldier has a rifle carrying more bullets than that of any
other army.
The Lee Enfield rifle now used in the British army carries ten bullets
in the magazine and one in the barrel. O'Leary, of course, fired all
his eleven bullets, and he is credited with making eight of them kill a
man apiece. That is an amazing shooting record, said to be unequalled
for a soldier.
Sergeant O'Leary is not a particularly fierce looking soldier, as might
be expected, but a tall, slender, fair-haired young fellow. He is only
twenty-five years old.
"A quiet, easy-going young fellow O'Leary is," said his friend,
Sergeant Daly, of the Second Battalion of the Irish Guards. "But he is
remarkably quick on his feet."
O'Leary was born in the little village of Inchigeelach, in the County
Cork. His father and mother still live there. He has an older brother
and four sisters, who are now in America.
He served for several years in the Canadian Northwest Mounted Police,
but went back and joined the British Army in order to be nearer home.
After the fight in which he won his decoration he wrote home:
"Dear Parents: I guess you will be glad to hear that I was promoted
full sergeant on the field on account of distinguished conduct on
February 1, when we charged the Huns and routed them in disorder.
"You bet the Irish Guards are getting back now."
Mrs. O'Leary, the old mother of the hero, has been interviewed at her
home in Ireland. As might be expected her words were very simple.
"It's proud I am of Mike," said Mrs. O'Leary, "but I wish he was home
instead of being in that cruel war.
"When that telegram came for me, I thought sure Mike was dead, but
when I opened it I found that he had been promoted. Sure I was better
pleased to know that he was alive than promoted.
"Mike is a good boy. He never gave me a moment's uneasiness since he
was in the cradle, except when he went away on his foreign adventures.
I suppose he had to leave me. There's little enough chance for a boy
here, with only the pigs to look after and his father and me."
We have been inclined to think that the days were over when a mighty
warrior could rush in among the foe and slay many with his own hands
but O'Leary and many others in this war have proved that that is not
the case.