Tales of family heroism echo a century later with Decade of Centenaries competition

Local connections to national and global events a century ago have been unearthed by winners of a schools’ history competition.

The impact of the First World War and the War of Independence were prevalent among the eight winners who received prizes from Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan at University College Cork, one of the competition sponsors. They were selected from 200 entries to the Decade of Centenaries all-island essay competition, organised to mark the centenary of important events between 1912 and 1922.

Pupils of fourth to sixth classes at Model School in Dunmanway, Co Cork, won a primary school category for their project which analysed the reasons why a Bandon family joined the British army and fought in the First World War, one of many family histories the school investigated.