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100 years after his death, Irish soldier who fought for America in World War I to get a marker on his grave

The SouthtownStar - 7/21/2018

July 20--On the 100th anniversary of the day he died, U.S. Army Corporal Martin J. Cunningham will finally get a marker placed on his grave.

During a noon ceremony Sunday, the Irish citizen who fought for America during World War I will get the burial honors some say he should have received a century ago.

Cunningham died in northern France on July 22, 1918. He was buried in Pierrefonds Les Bains, Oise, "in a five foot earthen grave, no box or blanket," the report of disinterment and reburial states.

In 1920, Cunningham's remains were brought back to Chicago'sSouth Side, where his sister Margaret (Cunningham) Brady lived, and where Cunningham had lived for a time before heading off to war, researcher Patrick Gorman said.

The young soldier was then reburied in an unmarked grave near the railroad tracks along 111th Street in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Morgan Park.

Like so many others who have died in far away battles, Cunningham didn't receive a proper homecoming nor, Gorman says, a marker befitting an American hero.

Gorman, who lives in Dixon, Ill. and works as executive director of the Ronald Reagan Boyhood Home there, will be at Sunday's event. So will Tom O'Brien, a U.S. Navy veteran and Chicago Police officer, and his brother Dan O'Brien, both of whom live in Morgan Park.

"I was just going to attend the ceremony," said Tom O'Brien, who first read Gorman's account of Cunningham's journey on Veteran's View website (veteransview.com/news/dignity-for-martin). The story also was published in the Irish American News, Gorman said.

"There are a lot of these guys out there that are just forgotten, and they were never recognized when they came home," Tom O'Brien said.

When he learned of Gorman's efforts to get recognition for Cunningham, Tom O'Brien said he offered to help.

"I started calling people in the neighborhood, as well as Windy City Vets and the VFW, just to let them know," he said. "We're trying to correct that wrong.

"I know there are several more (soldiers buried in unmarked graves) in Mount Olivet," Tom O'Brien said. "There were a lot of soldiers killed in battle who were buried at the scene, in Flanders Field or wherever. If family had the money, they'd bring their bodies back home."

But often, they couldn't afford to pay for headstones or markers.

Some of the graves that do have stones are now barely legible, he said.

"We're trying to go through them a little at a time and replace them," Tom O'Brien said.

According to Gorman, who has researched the lives and deaths of more than 250 soldiers, Cunningham was born on Sept. 28, 1888 in Shanvally, Co. Mayo, Ireland.

"It is believed he came to New York and then Chicago to live with his sister in the early part of the 20th century," Gorman said.

He joined the U.S. Army just before the nation entered World War I and was sent to serve with Company A of the 28th Infantry in Europe.

Sometime on or about July 22, Cunningham was wounded and later died of those wounds. As was customary as the time, Gorman said, he was immediately buried near the battle scene. After the war, on July 23, 1921, three years and one day after he died, Cunningham was reburied in Mount Olivet, he said.

Though it has been common for soldiers to be buried in unmarked graves, Gorman said, "Nobody needs to be forgotten, especially someone who gave their life for their country."

Not all of the soldiers resting in unmarked graves were killed in battle, Gorman said. Some died of old age but their families couldn't afford markers, he said.

Gorman, who has been a genealogist since 1999 began researching soldiers who died in military service to the United States after he met Michael Feeney.

Feeney, a member of the British empire of Castlebar, Co. Mayo Ireland, was the driving force behind the construction of the Mayo Peace Park and its Garden of Remembrance, which commemorates all who have died in major world wars and conflicts.

Many Irish soldiers, Gorman said, have given their lives for the United States, their adopted country, during various wars.

Last fall, he said, he pieced together Cunningham's story and, after Catholic Charities agreed to pay the $275 setting fee for the marker, began to make plans for Sunday's ceremony.

Dan O'Brien said, "We're just trying to get some people to come out" and bear witness to an event that "should have happened a long time ago."

Grave Dedication for Corp. Martin J. Cunningham

When: Noon Sunday

Where: Mount Olivet Cemetery, 2755 W. 111th St., Chicago

Grave location: Section 12 Lot 158. (Section 12 is located along the tracks off 111th Street)

dvickroy@tribpub.com

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