MORE than 70 years after the end of World War II a Donegal soldier’s service to the Local Defence Force has finally been recognised.
Rooskey pensioner James Callan was proudly saluted by officers as he collected his medal during a special ceremony at Finner Camp recently.
The Local Defence Force (LDF) existed from 1939 to 1946 and was a volunteer branch set up to support the Gardai and the Permanent Defence Force during the emergency period.
By 1941 the LDF had over 88,000 members nationwide, among them James Callan. He served with the Letterkenny Battalion which is known to have drilled in Trinity Hall and Rockhill House.
After the war ended, the LDF was disbanded and replaced by the Forsea Cosanta Aitiuil (FCA), now the Army Reserve.
For their service and dedication during a turbulent period in Irish history, members of the LDF were presented with medals. Until last week, and out of the tens of thousands handed out, only one medal remained unclaimed.
In James Callan’s case, he stayed with the Defence Forces for a further two years after the disbandment of the LDF, serving in Athlone from 1947 to 1949 with the Fourth Field Engineers.
James proudly displaying his LDF medal with Captain Fred O’Donovan at his side.
He then left Ireland and moved to Coventry where he became a prominent figure among the city’s Irish community. He worked for many years with Coventry City Council and was a founding member of the Four Masters GAA Club.
After moving back to Ireland, James settled in Rooskey. It was a chance conversation with neighbour Ian McConaghy that led to him claiming his LDF award, the last original medal held by the Defence Forces.
Now aged 93, James was greeted by a 30 man guard of honour at Finner.
Neighbour Ian McConaghy who set the ball rolling towards the poignant ceremony said, “We have chatted about a lot of things over the years and James told me about his time with the LDF. So earlier this year I contacted local councillor Patrick McGowan who got in touch with Pat The Cope Gallagher.
“Pat spoke to Minister for Defence Paul Kehoe’s office and it was discovered that James had never got his medal. The minister’s secretary said they would post it out to him but the officers at Finner Camp agreed that they wanted to present it to him personally.”
Earlier this month Ian accompanied James to Finner where the pensioner was asked to inspect the troops.
“They were surprised by how sprightly he was for 93 and I think James was surprised by the ceremony of the whole thing. But he was proud and happy and as the week has gone on he has been showing his medal to his nephews and nieces.
“It was lovely for him to get it after all these years.”
An officer salutes James for his services during the ’emergency’.
Among the guard of honour was Captain Neil Ledwith who helped trace records of James Callan’s service.
“After the war the LDF was disbanded and in a lot of cases people changed addresses or went off working,” said Captain Ledwith.
“But we have military archives and a roll where people were asked to come in and sign for their medal. When we looked we found James’s records but the signature was blank which told us that he had never received his medal.
“An interesting aspect to James’s story is that was only a certain number of these medals issued and the one he received was the last. It has been in storage all these years and he can now say that he is the proud owner of the very last original LDF medal,” Captain Ledwith added.
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