Next of kin – sisters name given:
Duty done, family contacted
Telegram ignored – the shame, the shame
As if kinship itself retracted.
But so things were in those times
And so he lies in an unknown spot
The shame of his uniform now has passed
His grave unknown, he’s forgotten not.
The tragic end of an Irish soldier of fortune, Ballinalee’s Tom Reilly. Died in 1953 in British Military hospital, and as it was taboo to have family in the UK forces at the time, the telegram informing his sister, my grandmother was ignored. We have been trying to find his resting place since. R.I.P.
