November 18. The final day of the Somme Offensive. Roll of Honour

On this day in 1914 the death occured of Patrick McDonagh. He was the first former pupil of St Malachy’s College, Belfast, a leading Catholic school, to be killed in action in the war. Unlike the other former pupils who served in the war, Patrick was already in the army at the outbreak of the conflict. He died less than a fortnight before his twenty-first birthday. On this day in 1941, a RUR and SAS officer died following a raid on airfields in North Africa. Eoin McGonigle (Photo above) was a member of a leading Irish legal family. A Catholic, he was educated at Clongowes Wood College, Co.Kildare, and Queen’s University, Belfast. He was the brother of Sir Ambrose McGonigal MC (RUR). Charles Allen from Dervock died in 1914 with the Irish Guards. In 1916 this was the final day of the Somme Offensive and men from Ballycastle, Ballymena, and Whitehead died. Roughly 3,500 men from all over Ireland died in this battle.