07/06/2026
Yesterday in 1944, Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy in the largest amphibious military operation in history Operation Overlord, under US Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Along 50 miles of French coastline, 130,000 men were set to land on five beaches, crossing the English Channel aboard 3,400 ships.
Though Ireland was officially neutral, some 66,083 from the Irish state enlisted with the British Armed Forces, with a further 64,157 from Northern Ireland. Among them who crossed to Normandy that morning was a young Waterford man who would become the only soldier from the Irish state to receive the Military Cross on D-Day.
Redmond Christopher Archer Cunningham was born on Christmas Day 1916 in the Ballybricken area of Waterford City, the middle child of 15. Named after his godfather John Redmond, the former Home Rule leader, he was educated at Clongowes Wood College and worked as an architectural draughtsman before the war.
Restless and hungry for adventure, he enlisted in Belfast in 1943 as a second lieutenant in the 79th Armoured Division of the Royal Engineers, and was posted to Scotland where the division was preparing for Normandy under Major General Percy Hobart.
On the night of 5 June, Cunningham was in London, spending a few hours in the city's pubs with a friend before whatever came next. The following morning, seasick, cold, and nursing a hangover, he landed at 07:00am on Queen Red beach at Ouistreham as part of the first attack wave on Sword Beach.
Almost immediately, he saw his close friend Geoffrey Desanges fall. Within minutes, his tank was hit by German mortar fire. He abandoned it, commandeered another, and fought on through three tanks that morning before reorganising his unit and turning to the mined beach ahead.
Army dispatches record him removing mines by hand under sustained fire. With the beach cleared, he led his men against the German defences and captured around 90 prisoners. The following day his squadron took a vital canal lock at Ouistreham, opening a route inland for the infantry of the Royal Ulster Rifles.
For his actions across those two days, Cunningham received the Military Cross, cited for acts of exemplary gallantry. He was the only Irishman to receive that distinction on D-Day.
He was not finished. Later that year at Nijmegen, during the Battle of the Scheldt, he led an assault that captured around 200 prisoners, earning a bar to his Military Cross and taking shrapnel wounds he would carry for the rest of his life. The Belgian government later awarded him the Croix de Guerre for his part in rescuing civilians in Antwerp following a German V1 attack on the city.
Cunningham was far from the only Irishman to distinguish himself that day. Among those who also landed at Normandy were two of the five Halloran brothers from Ennistymon, Co. Clare. Three of the brothers had enlisted with the British Army, while Jeremiah and Martin, living in New York when the war broke out, served in the US Army. All five survived and came home highly decorated.
Cunningham returned to Ireland in 1946, became a successful architect in Waterford, and developed a well-earned reputation as a bon vivant with a fondness for racetracks. He died on 1 December 1999. His wartime papers are held in the Trinity College Dublin archive.
Lest We Forget🌺
Ubique and Quo Fas et Gloria Ducunt
"Everywhere" and "Where Right And Glory Lead"
