John P O'Donnell (born 1890; date of death unknown) was an

Irish Australian Irish Australians () are ‌‍‍‍‍residents of Australia who are either fully or partially of Irish people, Irish descent. Irish immigrants and their descendants have had a prominent presence in Australian society since the First Fle ...

soldier and poet, fl. 1915–1918. O'Donnell was born in

Tuam Tuam (; , meaning 'mound' or 'burial-place') is a town in Ireland and the second-largest settlement in County Galway. It is west of the midland Region, Ireland, midlands of Ireland, about north of Galway city. The town is in a civil parishe ...

County Galway County Galway ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Northern and Western Region, taking up the south of the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht. The county population was 276,451 at the 20 ...

in Ireland in 1890, the son of an

accountant An accountant is a practitioner of accounting or accountancy. Accountants who have demonstrated competency through their professional associations' certification exams are certified to use titles such as Chartered Accountant, Chartered Certif ...

in the National Bank. He served in the

Australian Army The Australian Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of Australia. It is a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF), along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army ...

during World War I, arriving at

Gallipoli The Gallipoli Peninsula (; ; ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles strait to the east. Gallipoli is the Italian form of the Greek name (), meaning ' ...

on 25 April 1915. He was there eight months and wounded in that time. A poem of his - "Lines on Australian Graves at Gallipoli" - was published in the ''Dublin Evening News'' of 18 September 1915, and he was described as of the machine gun section of the Australian Expeditionary Force, a nephew of the Hon. B. McM. Glynn, iLH.R., having arrived in Australia from Ireland 18 months previously. He received an appointment to the staff of the Bank of Adelaide, and for some time lived with an uncle, the late Dr. Eugene Glynn. When the war broke out he volunteered and landed with the 10th Battalion at Gaba Tepe. He was hit 10 times and wounded four times, and with 28 others was posted as missing, but subsequently the whole 29 reappeared in the trenches. He later fought at the

Battle of the Somme The Battle of the Somme (; ), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and the French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place between 1 July and 18 Nove ...

. In 1918 he was invalided home, during which time he wrote the last six poems of his only collection, dealing with the war from the perspective of an Australian.

Bibliography

* ''Songs of an Anzac'',

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, Brown & Nolan, 1918

Notes

References

* ''Galway Authors'', Helen Mahar, 1976. Irish poets Writers from County Galway Irish soldiers in the Australian Army Australian World War I poets Irish World War I poets Irish emigrants to Australia Year of death missing Australian military personnel of World War I Australian Army officers Irish people of World War I 1890 births Military personnel from County Galway {{Ireland-poet-stub