"Like most who endure the horrors of war, Pappy didn't often speak of his experiences..." For Sunday Miscellany on RTÉ Radio 1, listen to The Freedom of Small Nations by Peter Trant above.
I already had my grandfather's regimental number when I started researching his war record. My cousin Mary knew he had run away and joined up with two pals. 'All three were sixteen’ she texted, ‘and all three came back, which was an achievement in itself.’
It sure was. Of the estimated 210,000 Irishmen from the island of Ireland who served in the British Army during The Great War, over 35,000 never made it home. Our grandfather, Pappy, as we called him, was almost one of them.
I spent childhood summers in Gormanston with him and my grandmother. He was a tall, lean man with a pronounced limp and military-style moustache.
I remember being fascinated by his pen-knife, which had 1914 carved into the handle: the year he stole silently from his home, lied about his age and enlisted in The Irish Guards...
Listen to more from Sunday Miscellany here.
