The Royal Fusiliers Cross and Headstone
Audio Transcript
A memorial to the Royal Munster Fusiliers in the form of a beautifully decorated High Cross is located to the left of the Killarney Avenue Hotel. The regiment was established in 1881 through the amalgamation of several Irish units in the British Army, such as the East India Company, the Royal Bengal Fusiliers and the Kerry Militia. The regiment served in India, Burma, Jerusalem, Palestine and South Africa during the Boer War and in WWI.
The regiment’s emblem contains a Bengal Tiger, a grenade flame and the flag of the southern Irish province of Munster. The memorial was unveiled with full British military pomp and ceremony in 1906. Its design is based on the Irish High cross that represents the golden age of the Early Irish Church.
In the same location, a memorial to the 308 men from Killarney who fought in the first world war was unveiled by the President of Ireland in 2009. 192 men died in the war and those who returned were badly injured and mentally scarred. Of the young men who died, most were killed at Gallipoli, and some at the Battle of the Somme. A book of remembrance is kept in Killarney Library which records their details.
