Cork Examiner 1 December 1870
Aid for the
Sick and Wounded French
Dungarvan, 25
November 1870
Dear Sir,
It becomes my pleasing duty to forward you the
enclosed bank order for £162-7-7
collected in this town and surrounding district, in aid of the sick and wounded
of the French army, and which you will please have placed to the credit of the
Irish Ambulance funds. I may truly say the sum is the spontaneous offering of a
people anxious to express their zeal and enthusiasm in this matter, not
forgetful of the old historic relations between Ireland and France.
And although the present is a day of bitter trial and
bleeding anguish to the heart of France, in which Ireland sympathises to her
utmost heart’s core, it may be the springtime in which seed shall have been
cast that in a future day will develop into a harvest of glory to France and of
benefit to Ireland. ‘May God save both nations’
I have the honour to be
Yours Very obediently, Michael J Anthony.
The donation was acknowledged by James F Lombard
(businessman, property developer, and organizer of the ambulance group), South
Hill, Upper Rathmines:
‘I am very glad to see by your letter that the people
of Dungarvan well understand that the Irish Ambulance Committee are doing more,
much more, than merely giving relief to the poor suffering French wounded at
the present moment’.
The French Third Republic was adopted on 4 September
1879 after the Second French Empire collapsed as a result of the Franco-Prussian
War (1870-1871).
This letter refers to the ‘Ambulance Irlandais’, Irish
Ambulance Brigade, which was established by a voluntary committee in Dublin to
send a corps consisting of 31 surgeons, 250 men, five wagons, tents, bedding
etc. They arrived in France on 11 October 1870 and remained until February
1871.
Franco Irish Ambulance Brigade