Bray War Memorial (picture from informatique on Flickr)

One of the first war memorials in the Free State was unveiled in 1923 by Lord Powerscourt at Bray. The memorial—a Celtic cross made from Tullamore limestone on a plinth of Wicklow granite—was designed by Sir Thomas Manley Deane and constructed by architectural sculptors Charles Harrison and Sons of Great Brunswick St.  It lists the names of almost 200 people from Bray who died in World War 1.

In his speech, Powerscourt stated that the memorial was erected as “a tribute of gratitude, of love, and of admiration to those who, when the call came, sallied forth with light hearts, leaving all that that life held most dear, into the great unknown, whence, in their case, there was no return.” The memorial was erected “by their own endeavour, in memory of their own friends.”

The list of names on the memorial are recorded at the Irish War Memorial Website, at this link.

A video of Remembrance Day, 1924, is available at the British Pathe website and is embedded below: