Joseph Prosser - Moneygall"s first famous son

On Tuesday last, Barack Obama, the first African-American President of the United States was sworn in during a rousing ceremony in Washington DC. However, it is not only African-Americans, or black people everywhere, who have reason to be proud of President Obama"s achievements. The small town of Moneygall in the southern tip of Offaly also has a special link to the newest President. As most people now know, Barack Obama is descended from Falmouth (Fulmuth) Kearney, a son of the Moneygall shoemaker, who left his home in Offaly in 1850, age 19, to seek out a better life in America. Falmouth"s great-great-great grandson would go on to become the forty-fourth President of the United States. However, Barack Obama is not Moneygall"s only famous son. It is also the home of Joseph Prosser, soldier and Victoria Cross hero of the Crimean War. Joseph Prosser was born in Moneygall in 1828, which, at three years older, would make him a contemporary of Falmouth Kearney. Perhaps the two boys knew each other and even played together as they grew up? Like Falmouth, Prosser also had to make the difficult decision to leave Offaly in search of a better future. The Great Famine had ravaged the countryside, but unlike Falmouth, young Joseph Prosser did not take the boat to America. Instead, he joined the British Army. In 1853, the Crimean War erupted on the shores of the Black Sea. What sparked it off was a dispute over who was the sovereign authority in the Holy Land, although the core reasons for the war was Britain"s, France"s and Russia"s desire to take control of former territories of the crumbling Turkish Ottoman Empire. As usual, war followed the failure to reach a diplomatic solution. For Moneygall man Joseph Prosser, it was to be the beginning of a conflict that would make him famous - and a hero. Before the famous Battle of Balaklava, during which the Charge of the Light Brigade took place (one of the units involved in the historic charge was the 8th Royal Irish Hussars), the Crimean capital of Sebastopol came under siege from both land and sea. The British, along with their French and Turkish allies, wanted to prevent the Russian Black Sea Fleet from entering the Mediterranean, so they aimed their guns and pounded away at the city. Nearly a year later, in 1855, Sebastopol was still being bombarded by cannon fire, and it was at this time that Joseph Prosser entered the battle. Now only 27-years-old, Prosser was a Private in the 1st Battalion, 1st Regiment of Foot (Royal Scots). In a war that would become famous for thirst, disease and blight, for gross mismanagement of troops, a criminal lack of supplies and appalling medical facilities, Joseph Prosser was about to make a name for himself. The Russians were determined to keep the British out of their city and they fought bitterly to keep their enemies back. Then, "on 16 June 1855 at Sebastopol, when on duty in the trenches, Private Prosser pursued and apprehended (while exposed to enemy cross-fire) a soldier in the act of deserting to the enemy. On 11 August he left the most advanced trench and helped to carry to safety a severely wounded soldier of the 95th Regiment who was unable to move. This act was performed under very heavy fire from the enemy." Moneygall"s Joseph Prosser was soon awarded a medal for this outstanding act of bravery, and the above quote is taken from the citation for that medal. The medal was new, having only recently been created to award extreme displays of "gallantry in the face of the enemy" - one of the men responsible for the development of the award was Tallaght native William Howard Russell, the world"s first war correspondent, whose reports on individual acts of bravery and self-sacrifice went a long way to inspiring the powers-that-be to reward such deeds. It was called the Victoria Cross, and it"s first ever recipient was fellow Irishman Charles Davis Lucas from Armagh. Prosser came home a decorated war hero, and like Barack Obama - descendent of Prosser"s contemporary Falmouth Kearney - he is another of Moneygall"s famous sons. It just goes to show that small towns can often produce great legacies, and that heroes can be forged in the most unobtrusive of places. Joseph Prosser died on 10 June 1867, aged only 39, and was buried in Anfield Church of England cemetery in Liverpool, although it wasn"t until 1995 that a headstone was erected to his memory over his grave. However, his memory is well preserved in the Royal Scots Museum in Edinburgh Castle where his Victoria Cross is kept on display. Hopefully, like his famous American cousin, Joseph Prosser will also be warmly remembered is his hometown of Moneygall.