Council restores freedom honour for Great War earl
Windham Thomas Wyndham-Quin was stripped of the honour after supporting a move in 1918 by the British government to introduce conscription to the British army in Ireland to help the war effort.
The Fourth Earl was made a Freeman of the city on December 7, 1915, but the city council revoked the decision at a meeting on May 2, 1918.
The Fourth Earl of Dunraven’s name was last night restored to the list of Freemen of Limerick by an order of the city council.
Mayor of Limerick Cllr Ger Fahy said: “We discussed this in private at a meeting of the protocol committee after the matter was brought to our attention by Cllr Kieran Walsh, who did research into it.
The British government, thinking the war against Germany was going to be lost, tried to bring in conscription to Ireland and tensions were very high at the time after the 1916 Rising.
As Lord Dunraven from Adare supported the British government’s proposal, the city council which had 40 members at that time, met and voted 18 to two to erase and strike off the name of Lord Dunraven from the Roll of Freemen of the City. Nearly half the council members did not attend the meeting.”
Mr Fahy said he supported the move to restore the earl’s name to the roll of honour.
He said: “The Fourth Earl of Dunraven did an awful lot of good for the people of the city and county.”
The fourth earl lived from 1841 to 1926.
The current holder of the title Lord Thady Dunraven, the seventh earl, speaking from a holiday in France yesterday, said: “The family is very grateful and delighted that the decision of 1918 has been reversed and we are looking forward to seeing the name of the Fourth Earl back on the Roll of Freemen of the City of Limerick.”
University of Limerick historian Dr Matthew Potter carried out research on the events of 1918 and the manner in which the then city council moved to strike the Fourth Earl of Dunraven from the Roll of Freemen of the City of Limerick.
