Fond father and war hero

Mayo Post artical by john Healy May 07

REMEMBERING THE DEAD A total of 26 members of the Horkan family of Castlebar visited the Great War cemeteries of northern France recently.Fond father, war heroCounty ViewJohn Healy’s retrospective take on what’s making the newsWHEN 26 members of the Horkan family of Castlebar (representing three generations) visited the Great War cemeteries of northern France recently, it was also to honour an old family commitment.Ninety years earlier, their father, Paddy Horkan, had been awarded the Military Medal for outstanding courage and bravery as battle raged over a small town in north east France.The town was Gavrelle, it was April of 1917, and the Allied forces were fighting tooth and nail to re-take the countryside which had been in German occupation for nearly three years. Castlebar-born Horkan, a private in the Worcestershire Battalion, was a stretcher-bearer who saw at first hand the ravages of war and the needless deaths of hundreds of young men far away from home.His bravery under sustained enemy fire as he criss-crossed the battlefield to save his comrades from certain death was to earn him the coveted Military Medal and the enduring admiration of his fellow soldiers.The honour was a high point in a career and a life story which was so colourful as to be almost of fictional quality. The man who was decorated and lauded by the British army would, within a few short years, return home to pitch his lot with the Irish republican movement whose aim was the downfall of British army power in this country.The story of Paddy Horkan began in 1890 with his birth in Yorkshire to exiled Swinford parents. A short time later the family returned to Mayo where his father, PA Horkan, opened a highly successful plumbing business in Castlebar, where he had also been appointed manager of the local waterworks. In 1915, Paddy Horkan decided to emigrate to Coventry, even though there was plenty of work available for him in his father’s thriving business. In Europe, the ‘war to end all wars’ was entering its second year. Influenced by the heavy propaganda of the time, he decided to join the British army to go and fight for Catholic freedom.His training with the Worcestershire’s was carried out on Salisbury Plain, from where it was off to France with tens of thousands of other younger men. The encounter at Gaurelle came shortly afterwards. Three times he was wounded in the heavy fighting; three times having been patched up at the field hospital, he returned to the front. Injury finally got the better of him and, while waiting at the clearing station to be taken away to hospital, he remembered seeing the pyramid of corpses waiting to be buried.Recovering in hospital in Manchester, Paddy Horkan was destined to meet no less a personage than the King of England. King George came to visit the injured soldiers; because Horkan had been awarded the Military Medal, he was brought outside on his stretcher to be introduced to King George.War hero that he was, Paddy Horkan was court-martialled twice nonetheless. The first was when, home on leave, he decided to desert, believing that the war would be over in a matter of weeks. At the urging of his father, who told him that the charge of desertion would always hang over him, he decided to return. His late return, however, caused trouble. He was court-martialled, and only his explanation of the difficulty he found in travelling across to Ireland, itself in the grip of internal war, saved him.On the second occasion, the charge of refusing to present himself for parade was also dismissed. He was the only Catholic in his battalion and, because there was no Catholic chaplain, he argued that his religion forbade him to attend a parade which essentially was a Protestant service.In 1918, Paddy Horkan left the British army and returned to Castlebar for what he hoped would be a rest. It was a short-lived rest. A group of local republicans, aware of his family’s nationalistic leanings, approached him to join them so as to teach the rebels some military tactics. He joined Castlebar A company of the West Mayo Brigade of the Old IRA, was promoted to the rank of company captain, and went on to play a major role in the War of Independence.A man of immense bravery, commitment and dedication, he commanded huge respect in republican circles, both locally and nationally. He had seen service in two wars; as a young man he had seen the carnage of World War I on the bloody battlefields of Europe; as an older man, he had played his part in the fight for Irish freedom against the Empire he had once fought for.The late Michael J Egan of Castlebar often recalled the delightful story of the re-enactment of the famed ‘Races of Castlebar’ held in 1948. The colourful pageant was to be the highlight of the celebrations; the only problem lay in trying to get local actors – fearful of being branded as pro-British – to play the part of the Redcoat army. Inspiration struck when Michael J approached Paddy Horkan and asked him, in the interests of the town, to consider playing a British officer. The freedom fighter readily agreed; when the word got out that Paddy Horkan was to play the part, all further reluctance to fill the British uniforms disappeared!Paddy Horkan died in July of 1982, aged 92. He had been confined to his sick bed as a general election was called. His friends, old and trusted friends, called to him to warn that, because of his weak condition, he best not go to cast his vote. But they were wrong.The old fighting spirit was still there on election day. Patriotic and resplendent in his wheelchair, he made his way to the courthouse to cast his vote. His old friends had gathered to witness the stirring moment, among them his friend and physician, Dr John Langan, and the legendary Pat Lavelle.For old time’s sake, they adjourned to King’s in Spencer Street, where the old man treated them to a drink. It was the last hurrah. With that, he retired to his bed and passed away quietly