Cork man travelled north to volunteer

John Shanahan (93), who landed with the Royal Ulster Rifles at Sword Beach in 1944, was in Carrick on Friday to participate in the ‘Little Ships’ relay.

Speaking to the Carrick Times following a reception in the Marina Building, Mr Shanahan indicated that while the sea was a little choppy out from the harbour, it bore little resemblance to that endured 70 years earlier.

John said: “My sea experience mostly then was in an infantry landing craft, a bit different today, a bit more comfortable.”

“I originally came from Cork in southern Ireland and I volunteered. I had to come up to Belfast to volunteer. I tell a joke, it is a little joke: I had to pay my own fare to come up here. I have I have been trying to get it back ever since but the government won’t give it to me. They say they can’t afford it. They say they would have to pay me 73 years’ compound interest.”

Asked if he felt it important to remember events like this, he stressed: “Indeed I do, yes. The young people should be reminded of it too and that’s part of our mission in a way because we do visit schools occasionally to tell the young people what our experiences were. And, of course, as we get fewer, it is possibly more important for them to get a first-hand account as it were.”

John is a supporter of D-Day Revisited, a charity giving veterans the chance to make a journey to the Normandy Landings Site. It also provides a forum for veterans to record and share their experiences with younger generations (www.d-dayrevisited.co.uk).