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Schoolgirl’s war poem displayed on memorial stone
A war poem written by South Yorkshire schoolgirl Molly Meleady-Hanley has been etched onto a memorial stone in Sheffield’s Weston Park. The installation gives a permanent home to a work that has resonated with local people and featured in remembrance events, inviting visitors to reflect on conflict, loss and the sacrifices of war.
Meleady-Hanley wrote “Me Brother Dan” in 2016, aged 11, for the centenary of the Battle of the Somme; it won a 2018 competition run by the charity Never Such Innocence. Written in Sheffield dialect from the perspective of a child watching her brother leave for war, it has been read at the Menin Gate in Belgium and adapted into a play at the Crucible Theatre. A community appeal funded the stone, made by sculptor and stonemason Ryan Johnson James, and its unveiling coincides with the period marking 110 years since the Somme ended on 18 November 1916.
In short
- Molly Meleady-Hanley’s poem is now carved into a Sheffield memorial stone.
- She wrote it aged 11 for the Somme centenary.
- The community-funded memorial is in Weston Park.
Explained simply
The Battle of the Somme was a major First World War campaign fought in France in 1916, with heavy losses among soldiers on both sides. Remembrance events commemorate those killed in war and give people a chance to reflect on its effects.
Molly Meleady-Hanley wrote “Me Brother Dan” when she was 11, imagining a child in Sheffield watching her brother leave for war. The poem uses Sheffield dialect and has been shared at remembrance events, including at the Menin Gate, a memorial in Belgium to missing British and Commonwealth soldiers.