The Emergency Medal

This is a bad photo of the medal that one of my sons, Jimmy mentioned in the Chatterbox (below right). It was awarded to my Father, Michael Leonard (known to family and friends as Mick) for his service with the ARP from 1939 at the outbreak of WWII until 1946. My Dad would have been very proud to see his medal being worn by one of his Grandsons in New York on the St Patrick's Day Parade.

The front of the medal depicts Eire holding a sword pointed downwards and an Irish wolfhound on a leash. The symbolism there is obvious. The words around the edge of the medal are Ré na Práinne, which in English is literally Emergency Period. The bar across the top says National Service in Irish and the two bars across the ribbon show that he served for the entire period of the war. He was one of the first rescuers to arrive at the scene of the North Strand bombing at 1.30am on May 30th 1941. 

Comments on Posts, etc

Previously if you wanted to leave a comment on any post you were asked to log in before you could leave any comments. This was a glitch that developed, and I've now fixed it.

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That's all I can think of for now. Have a look at some of the links to the right of the pictures and click on any that you'd like to have a look at.

Most of all, enjoy the Blog... there's a lot more coming... so drop back often.

Jim

New York, St Patrick's Day 2006

Jimmy (right) with an Ambulance colleague, Stephen, outside their hotel on 7th Ave shortly before taking part in the New York St Patrick's Day Parade.