War Anniversaries (3)

War Anniversaries/Songs and Poems (3)

Dunsany Wayside Cross

Ireland of 1914 was a mishmash of conflicting interests under the umbrella of Home Rule and the out break of  the war would prove divisive for many of them although tens of thousands would enlist on Redmond's call to arms. Some did so out of a sense of duty, others of necessity or just a simple taste for adventure or that it was expected of them but I would imagine that for most poverty was the driving influence and that if they were lucky enough to survive the horrors of the trenches then that's what they came back to and were forgotten. Some of those doing the most remembering today would have had little in common with them and if they lean in any direction now it is one of convenience or the fashion of the times. It has been said of 1916 that if they'd waited Home Rule was on the cards and you could argue that is how things turned out in everything but name. We swapped London for Brussels. The slant of it though before we went all euro was some version of what could be said to be establishment friendly and finding it's roots in those who were sheltering under those umbrellas in 1914. One of the most popular or familiar poems from that period would have to be Francis Ledwidge's "The Lament for Thomas MacDonagh"  in that it made its way into a number of schoolbooks and the others were kept safely out. But they're there and the ones that caught the public imagination  Some say that the  victors write history but a few poets.....