Ireland honours VC recipient.

On 7 August 2004, for the first time since Independence in 1921, an Irish Government Minister dedicated the grave of a British Army soldier. Irish Minister for Defence Michael Smith joined British Ambassador to Ireland Stuart Eldon to unveil a headstone for Irish born Victoria Cross recipient Sgt-Major Cornelius Coughlan of the 75th Regiment (The Gordon Highlanders).

Coughlan was born in East Galway and served 21 years with the British Army. He returned to Westport, County Mayo, where he lived for 40 years until his death, aged 87. He was buried with military ceremonial in 1915 but his grave in Aughavale cemetery remained unmarked for 89 years. The VC was for two acts of gallantry during the Indian Mutiny. On 8 June 1857 at Delhi, he gallantly ventured under heavy fire, with three others, into a serai occupied by the enemy in great numbers and rescued a private of their regiment who was severely wounded. On 18 July he encouraged a party to charge down a lane lined on each side with huts and raked by cross-fire. He went with the party into an enclosure filled with the enemy and accounted for all of them. He then returned under cross-fire to collect dhoolies and carry off the wounded.

Mr Smith acknowledged that for much of the past 80 years, the very idea of such a memorial ceremony would have been unthinkable. He said there had been a tendency in Ireland to overlook many Irish men who had travelled abroad to fight in foreign wars, but that those days had now passed.

"Today's dedication ceremony is another small, but significant, step in our steady progress towards becoming a more inclusive and tolerant society," he said. "The men who served in the various regiments of the British army came from every corner of Ireland. Among them were protestants, catholics, unionists and nationalists, their differences transcended by a common commitment not to any flag but to their comrades and their Regiment."

Thanks to former ACT member John Tremlett who kindly send news clippings from Ireland

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