VETERANS MEMORIAL the bronze monument on the lawn in front of the Manor is a memorial given by the Kane Family to honour those Irish-born men and women who, over the years, have served in the Armed Forces of the United States.
The memorial was designed and sculpted by A. Thomas Schomberg in 1986 under commission by Mr. & Mrs. Thomas F. Kane, owners of Adare Manor and cast in triplicate. One of the memorials, dedicated in 1986, stands in downtown Denver, Colorado and the other was gifted to the United States of America and installed at the National Cemetery in Riverside, California.
The third piece, here at Adare Manor, was shipped to Ireland and installed on May 1st, 1999 to commemorate the visit to Ireland of the travelling Vietnam Memorial. Having traversed the island of Ireland in April 1999, with viewings at Collins Barracks, Cork, Dublin Castle, Queens University, Belfast and National University, Galway, the Wall went on display here at Adare Manor. This was the only private property to host the wall and coincided with the dedication of the Memorial.
To celebrate the dedication of the Memorial, all of the families of the sixteen Irish killed in Vietnam were invited to the Manor as guests for the weekend. Sixty-five family members, representing twelve of the families availed of the invitation and travelled to Adare for the ceremony. Of those Irish who lost their lives in Vietnam, nine were United States Army, six were United States Marines and one was in the Australian Army.
The families, along with the parents of a United States Marine from Blarney who died on active duty in 1997, were honoured at a private dinner at the Gallery. Presiding at the Dinner and formal dedication ceremony the next day were the Taoiseach of Ireland, Mr. Bertie Ahern and the United States Ambassador, Mr. Michael Sullivan, along with Representatives of the United States and Irish military establishments.
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