A 2018 Armistice Day essay from the late, much-missed writer - For Sunday Miscellany on RTÉ Radio 1, listen to Remembrance by Eileen Battersby above.
It was not a victory; there was no triumph only an exhausted sigh of relief as the world mourned its dead and a generation of soldiers became ghosts, destined to live forever as young men suspended in time, inhabiting the memories of the parents and wives and women who had waited.
When peace was declared at 11.00am on November 11, 1918, there was little to celebrate. The mood was of lamentation; anger would follow.
Ordinary people blamed their leaders. Families grieved for sons and brothers; husbands and fathers. The maimed, shell shocked veterans who did return were often shunned for being damaged reminders of horrors best forgotten...
Listen to more from Sunday Miscellany here.
