A REFLECTION ON THE
BATTLE OF THE SOMME COMMEMORATION 2013 BY AN IRISH YOUTH:
Really, I find trying to condense my
experience – or my thoughts about my experience – of the trip to
Grandvilliers for the Battle of the Somme commemoration into a few
lines to be somewhat of an injustice, but I shall try my best.
Arriving from my flight with Michael
(though he is known to friends in Athy and beyond simply as
‘Kearney’) I truly did not know what to expect. I was both
nervous and excited about the coming events, and also somewhat
apprehensive about staying with my host family. (Such worries were
soon wiped away, however, as my hostess and her son proved wonderful
company and truly kind and pleasant people – even if they were
apprehensive about their ability to speak English; I assured them it
was nothing compared to my reservations about attempting to speak
French – something I had never quite mastered.)
As for the official events, the
ceremonies, I cannot possibly put into words how emotionally moved I
was by them – and how horrified I was by the sheer number of
casualties and fatalities of the Somme; something that I read into
upon my return home. Truthfully, I think that this trip is extremely
worthwhile for young people – and not just the young people of
Athy; a town with whom, of course, Grandvilliers has a special
relationship. In school, you see, Irish youth are not really exposed
as much to the first world war as they are to the second; indeed the
first remains as a mysterious prologue to its more (dare I say)
“popular” sequel. They hear nothing of the losses of the some, or
the countless brave young boys (on all sides) whose lives were
quenched like candles in the wind on the first day alone. The trip,
therefore, is important – if not for the educational purposes, then
certainly for the fact that such a horrible conflict should never be
allowed happen again; and it is only the young that can prevent such
an atrocity being repeated in the future.
Thank you all for this matchless
opportunity. I will remember it forever.
(Joseph O’ Hara)
