One of Ireland’s last veterans of the Second World War has died at the age of 104. 

John Patrick McCullough died on 6th June at Dundonald Hospital Belfast, close to the Somme Nursing Home, where he had spent his final months. 

In a statement, his daughter Carolyn Stafford described him as a “truly wonderful father and a fighter to the end”. 

The Antrim man joined the Royal Ulster Rifles at the age of 17 and was injured while fighting in Europe. 

Speaking to Newstalk ahead of the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day last year, Mr McCullough described his time in the British Army as “interesting” and said he had made many good friends while serving in uniform. 

After training in London, Mr McCullough was deployed to France in the aftermath of D-Day, where he was greeted as a liberator by grateful locals. 

“At the time, I didn’t know where northern France was, being such a green Irishman,” he recalled. 

“But when we went there we were treated very well by the locals. 

“Although the senior regiment that was there, they treated us as wee schoolboys - although we were better shots than most of them.

“We had more time to be on the ranges than they did, they were rushed to the front, you see.”

VE Day in France. Picture by: Alamy.com. 

Following D-Day, most Allied troops pushed east towards Berlin, where the Nazi regime was determined to cling on to the bitter end. 

However, Mr McCullough was not among them, having been seriously injured by a German grenade. 

“People who were injured were no use to them, so I was sent back to England and the Regiment,” he added. 

“A grenade was launched by the enemy and shrapnel whacked my leg and put me down.”

While victory was declared in May 1945, Mr McCullough returned to his native Northern Ireland and found that life in an era of peace was not without its challenges. 

“There was no work for you,” he remembered. 

“They didn’t have work for people shooting guns and quite a number of people from the south of Ireland had come up and taken up the civilian jobs.”

Main image: John Patrick McCullough. Picture by: Newstalk.