The above is a memorial cross to the last war to come rolling through this neck of the woods and neglected enough it is, but the last few days and indeed the next few mark a number of anniversaries when the great nations of Europe took leave of their senses and embarked on a series of conflicts that would leave millions dead and even more injured and maimed. This county alone saw hundreds of those who enlisted counted among the war dead and most of them are now forgotten as if it never happened. Though in the past few years this might have been put to right to some degree and Noel French's "The Meath War Dead" from The History Press Ireland lists them by name. Most people though get their history from the school books or popular ballads and songs and the poetry and prism of those poems and songs counts for a lot. The events of Easter 1916 overshadowed everything and although they were only a fraction of the number involved in the Great War, the poems of Pearse and W.B. Yeats and others, and indeed the songs from then and after are the constant that remains. Likewise in England for the war poets. A subject to get back to!
