The Irishmen who fought in the Rising, but for the British

Soldiers in Irish units of the British Army called on to quash the fighting at the GPO,

ON November 13, 1916, Private William O’Riordan of the 10th Battalion, Royal Dublin Fusiliers, was killed in action at Beaumont Hamel, during the Battle of the Somme. O’Riordan was from Kilcolman Park, Enniskeane, Co Cork.

His father was a mason; his mother a schoolteacher. The family could speak Irish. William O’Riordan has no known grave, so he is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial on the Somme. He was only 17 years old when he died.