4:52:17 > 4:52:22It is almost impossible to imagine the horror of what happened
4:52:22 > 4:52:24here 100 years ago.
4:52:24 > 4:52:27But in this sleepy part of provincial northern France
4:52:27 > 4:52:32is where one of the bloodiest battles of World War I was fought.
4:52:32 > 4:52:36Much of what I know about war is not just from history books.
4:52:36 > 4:52:41It's from the war poets, the songs, the paintings, the photography.
4:52:41 > 4:52:44The artists who fought on these battlefields,
4:52:44 > 4:52:47and who tried to interpret and make sense of it all.
4:52:47 > 4:52:52These days, when conflict can be settled at a remove by drones,
4:52:52 > 4:52:56do we still need artists to hold a mirror up to humanity
4:52:56 > 4:52:59at its worst and its best?
4:53:07 > 4:53:10This is Thiepval Wood, where the Ulster Division was stationed
4:53:10 > 4:53:15before going over the top on 1st July early morning.
4:53:15 > 4:53:17This is the Ulster Memorial Tower,
4:53:17 > 4:53:21an exact replica of Helen's Tower in Bangor.
4:53:21 > 4:53:24There really feels like an echo of home here.
4:53:29 > 4:53:32These are the trenches which held the Ulstermen
4:53:32 > 4:53:35who inspired Frank McGuinness's seminal play,
4:53:35 > 4:53:39Observe The Sons Of Ulster Marching Towards The Somme.
4:53:46 > 4:53:48Answer me why we did it.
4:53:50 > 4:53:53Why we let ourselves be led to extermination.
4:53:56 > 4:53:58In the end, we were not led.
4:53:59 > 4:54:01We led ourselves.
4:54:03 > 4:54:06We claimed we would die for each other in battle.
4:54:07 > 4:54:11To fulfil that claim, we marched into the battle that killed us all.
4:54:12 > 4:54:15Why did you write this play?
4:54:15 > 4:54:18Well, it's over 30 years ago since I started researching it
4:54:18 > 4:54:20and writing it.
4:54:20 > 4:54:24I think it's basically a consequence of a time
4:54:24 > 4:54:27that I spent in my very first job, which was lecturer of English
4:54:27 > 4:54:30in Coleraine with the University of Ulster.
4:54:30 > 4:54:34I had never really lived in a largely Protestant community before,
4:54:34 > 4:54:39and I had never really had any great access to the history and culture
4:54:39 > 4:54:41of the Protestant people before.
4:54:41 > 4:54:45At that time, I was spending some time in Coleraine,
4:54:45 > 4:54:48some time in Enniskillen, some time in Derry,
4:54:48 > 4:54:51and one linking factor between all those big towns
4:54:51 > 4:54:53was the war memorial.
4:54:53 > 4:54:56And that war memorial really didn't mean anything to me
4:54:56 > 4:54:59because at school we were not really taught anything
4:54:59 > 4:55:02about either of the great wars of the 20th century.
4:55:02 > 4:55:05Bit by bit, I started to get a fascination with it
4:55:05 > 4:55:07and started to make a connection with it.
4:55:07 > 4:55:10- But it wasn't your natural background.- No.
4:55:10 > 4:55:13I mean, you're a Catholic from Donegal.
4:55:13 > 4:55:17Yes, I was immensely aware of the border, and of the other side,
4:55:17 > 4:55:20and of the six counties, and we were the Free Staters.
4:55:20 > 4:55:24So I had this strong awareness of division,
4:55:24 > 4:55:26and of alienation from each other.
4:55:26 > 4:55:31And I think, like a lot of people in the '70s and '80s,
4:55:31 > 4:55:34I was determined to do something to bridge the gap,
4:55:34 > 4:55:38the cultural gap, between us and them,
4:55:38 > 4:55:42and not to accept that ridiculous difference
4:55:42 > 4:55:45and ridiculous lack of contact which our education on both sides
4:55:45 > 4:55:49had very deeply ingrained in us.
4:55:49 > 4:55:51I wanted to really react against that.
4:55:51 > 4:55:54SHOUTING
4:55:54 > 4:55:56What the hell do yous two think you're doing?
4:55:56 > 4:56:00- Defending this part of the realm. - Keep your defending for where it's needed across the water.
4:56:00 > 4:56:03- Let that lad go!- He's a Catholic bastard, he's no place in this.
4:56:03 > 4:56:05- He's no Catholic, he's one of ours. - Look at his eyes.
4:56:05 > 4:56:08- Are you a Catholic, son?- No! - Let him go, do you hear?
4:56:08 > 4:56:09He said, do you hear?!
4:56:11 > 4:56:13I hear. I hear clearly.
4:56:14 > 4:56:16The Boyne and the Somme,
4:56:16 > 4:56:22what parallels did you want to draw with those seismic battles?
4:56:22 > 4:56:26Yes, and it was a tremendous coincidence that the two
4:56:26 > 4:56:30great days in the history of Ulster Protestantism is, by a quirk
4:56:30 > 4:56:33of the calendar, they actually were fought on the same day.
4:56:33 > 4:56:37I mean, that really was screaming at me, actually,
4:56:37 > 4:56:41that there is this tremendous metaphor for, if you like,
4:56:41 > 4:56:43the energy of the culture.
4:56:43 > 4:56:48But I really wanted to make use of that very potent connection
4:56:48 > 4:56:53in deliberating what it is to be of the Protestant mind.
4:56:53 > 4:56:56Were people questioning you, saying, "Why is Frank McGuinness
4:56:56 > 4:57:00"writing this play about our heritage, our boys?"
4:57:00 > 4:57:04I don't thing I got too much of that, really,
4:57:04 > 4:57:07and I would have had an answer for it.
4:57:07 > 4:57:09And that answer was, "Look, it's a great story.
4:57:09 > 4:57:13"It's a ferocious, terrifying, heartbreaking story,
4:57:13 > 4:57:16"and if you didn't do it, I was going to do it."
4:57:16 > 4:57:18We're here, we're here!
4:57:18 > 4:57:22No cause for panic, ladies. The men are here.
4:57:22 > 4:57:27And these eight men, very strong male characters,
4:57:27 > 4:57:29women are mentioned but never appear in the play.
4:57:29 > 4:57:34I did make a very conscious decision that I would concentrate
4:57:34 > 4:57:37exclusively on men because they have to fulfil the role
4:57:37 > 4:57:39that normally they assign to women.
4:57:39 > 4:57:41They have to become protectors,
4:57:41 > 4:57:43nurturers, they have to become defenders.
4:57:43 > 4:57:45They have to love each other.
4:57:45 > 4:57:47The whole variety of ways of loving each other
4:57:47 > 4:57:50that normally they depend on a woman to do.
4:57:50 > 4:57:52Do you feel that Observe The Sons Of Ulster
4:57:52 > 4:57:54sits in the pantheon of great Unionist plays?
4:57:54 > 4:57:56Would you consider that?
4:57:56 > 4:57:59No, I don't think it's a Unionist play.
4:57:59 > 4:58:01I don't think it's a Republican play,
4:58:01 > 4:58:03or a Catholic play, or a Protestant play.
4:58:03 > 4:58:07It's a play that I hope genuinely makes an effort to understand
4:58:07 > 4:58:09why we are what we are,
4:58:09 > 4:58:13and I hope it does its job in terms of bringing an audience with it,
4:58:13 > 4:58:16through its beginning, middle and end,
4:58:16 > 4:58:19to a place of great tragedy and great loss.
4:58:19 > 4:58:24I feel a tremendous sense of grief at the loss of so much life
4:58:24 > 4:58:26and so much potential.
4:58:26 > 4:58:28But that's what I hope the play is,
4:58:28 > 4:58:31it is a great cry for peace.
4:58:39 > 4:58:42The soldiers in Frank's play would have known
4:58:42 > 4:58:45nurses like Newry woman Olive Swanzy.
4:58:45 > 4:58:49She not only saved lives, she also saved a unique
4:58:49 > 4:58:52collection of drawings, poems and sketches,
4:58:52 > 4:58:54created by the soldiers in her care,
4:58:54 > 4:58:57which lay undisturbed in an attic for 75 years.
4:58:57 > 4:59:01The story has been brought to the stage by Kabosh.
4:59:01 > 4:59:04"The miser crept out of his hole,
4:59:04 > 4:59:06"his bags of clink he clunk,
4:59:06 > 4:59:09"and many a smile that miser smole
4:59:09 > 4:59:12"and many a wink he wunk."
4:59:12 > 4:59:14Private A Bligh.
4:59:14 > 4:59:16Not a natural poet, I think we can agree.
4:59:16 > 4:59:19It's just spoofy, that's soldiers for you.
4:59:19 > 4:59:20Tomfoolery is their speciality,
4:59:20 > 4:59:22in the hospital with nothing to do all day,
4:59:22 > 4:59:25that's all they were at from dawn to dusk.
4:59:25 > 4:59:28They poured their droll humour into this book.
4:59:33 > 4:59:36Much of the humour is black humour,
4:59:36 > 4:59:39and there's much else that isn't humorous at all
4:59:39 > 4:59:43in this poignant scrapbook kept by nurse Olive Swanzy,
4:59:43 > 4:59:47who served in France during World War I.
4:59:47 > 4:59:51It's a collection of over 100 poems and sketches by soldiers
4:59:51 > 4:59:53she was caring for.
4:59:53 > 4:59:57It's a first-hand account of the thoughts that preoccupied the men
4:59:57 > 5:00:01as they lay in a field hospital, contemplating an uncertain future.
5:00:03 > 5:00:05"I want to go home,
5:00:05 > 5:00:09"where you can't hear the cannons rumble and roar.
5:00:09 > 5:00:12"I don't want to go to the trenches no more.
5:00:12 > 5:00:16"Take me over the seas where the Germans, they can't get at me.
5:00:17 > 5:00:20"Oh, my, I don't want to die.
5:00:20 > 5:00:22"I want to go home."
5:00:24 > 5:00:26The daughter of a Church of Ireland minister,
5:00:26 > 5:00:30Olive's nursing career began in 1915,
5:00:30 > 5:00:32when she left her home in Newry to join
5:00:32 > 5:00:36the Volunteer Aid Detachment, and was posted to Portsmouth.
5:00:36 > 5:00:39It was here the injured were sent for treatment
5:00:39 > 5:00:41and often returned to the front.
5:00:43 > 5:00:49At 7:30am, on 1st July 1916, the Battle of the Somme began.
5:00:49 > 5:00:53No-one could have imagined it would be the bloodiest day
5:00:53 > 5:00:55in British military history.
5:00:55 > 5:00:58The number of casualties was so enormous
5:00:58 > 5:01:01that more nurses were urgently needed.
5:01:01 > 5:01:06Olive found herself at Field Hospital Number 12
5:01:06 > 5:01:09on the racetrack outside Rouen in France.
5:01:09 > 5:01:13"I could smell the ether, it sickened me, I hated it.
5:01:13 > 5:01:15"And the noise.
5:01:16 > 5:01:19"The noise the men make when they first come in, mashed up,
5:01:19 > 5:01:21"bandaged, bewildered."
5:01:22 > 5:01:25Despite the horrendous conditions,
5:01:25 > 5:01:28Olive found relief from day-to-day stresses
5:01:28 > 5:01:30by painting her surroundings,
5:01:30 > 5:01:33the tainted landscape of Rouen hospital.
5:01:33 > 5:01:39What she was practising was her own form of occupational therapy,
5:01:39 > 5:01:42an idea scarcely known at the time,
5:01:42 > 5:01:47and which also led her to encourage her patients to draw and to write.
5:01:48 > 5:01:52One of the contributors was Fergus McCain,
5:01:52 > 5:01:54an illustrator from New York.
5:01:54 > 5:01:58This early cartoon is a comic treatment of his own wounding
5:01:58 > 5:02:04at the Battle of Delville Wood, nicknamed Devil's Wood.
5:02:04 > 5:02:08McCain would later create a series of cartoon postcards
5:02:08 > 5:02:13depicting life in the trenches, known as A Tommy's Life In France.
5:02:13 > 5:02:17Troops were encouraged to buy them and send them home.
5:02:18 > 5:02:21Humour was surprisingly common in the sketches,
5:02:21 > 5:02:24and while the battlefront does feature,
5:02:24 > 5:02:29many of the artists had different people and places in mind.
5:02:30 > 5:02:35The First World War is, for many people, a male narrative.
5:02:35 > 5:02:41It's about men, who mostly were the ones who suffered in the trenches,
5:02:41 > 5:02:42and who died.
5:02:42 > 5:02:45But it's also a women's war.
5:02:45 > 5:02:51So what we get with Nurse Swanzy's story
5:02:51 > 5:02:54is a woman's outlook on the war,
5:02:54 > 5:02:59and in particular, the way that she cherished the men sufficiently
5:02:59 > 5:03:02to want them to record a little bit of themselves.
5:03:02 > 5:03:04Why did they do it?
5:03:04 > 5:03:07The relationship between a nurse and a soldier,
5:03:07 > 5:03:13a wounded soldier in particular, at the front, was a rather special one.
5:03:14 > 5:03:17Because these young men, during the course of a war,
5:03:17 > 5:03:19were in male environments.
5:03:19 > 5:03:23They very rarely encountered women.
5:03:24 > 5:03:27And suddenly you're in a position where you're in the hospital ward,
5:03:27 > 5:03:30you're away from the sound of the guns, and there is this
5:03:30 > 5:03:35angel of the wards who is maybe doing very intimate things.
5:03:35 > 5:03:38She's washing you if you're unable to wash yourself.
5:03:38 > 5:03:42She's helping you to dress. She's there.
5:03:42 > 5:03:46She's a kindly voice, and she may well remind you of the mother
5:03:46 > 5:03:48that you maybe write to,
5:03:48 > 5:03:52the mother that you've maybe written a poem about
5:03:52 > 5:03:55in order to celebrate how much she means to you.
5:03:55 > 5:03:57And she's there almost as a sister,
5:03:57 > 5:03:59or perhaps even an imagined lover.
5:03:59 > 5:04:01Who knows?
5:04:01 > 5:04:05Some of them who write in this book of Olive's die in the war.
5:04:05 > 5:04:08They go back to the front and die,
5:04:08 > 5:04:12and the little poem that they leave, the little sketch, is perhaps all
5:04:12 > 5:04:17we have as we look at it 100 years later, all we have of their lives.
5:04:17 > 5:04:21If I want to live now, in this bright, shining present,
5:04:21 > 5:04:25the past must go, starting with this autograph book and the sketch pad.
5:04:25 > 5:04:27They can go into the fire.
5:04:27 > 5:04:30Think how long your patients took making their entries,
5:04:30 > 5:04:33doing their drawings. They wanted them kept.
5:04:33 > 5:04:37They wanted something they made to be held on to by you.
5:04:37 > 5:04:40Lock it away in a box, out of sight.
5:04:42 > 5:04:44And that's exactly what Olive did.
5:04:44 > 5:04:48The poems and sketches were hidden away in The Manse in Newry,
5:04:48 > 5:04:53and in her later home in Rostrevor for nearly 70 years.
5:04:54 > 5:04:56In 1974, Olive died,
5:04:56 > 5:05:00but it was another 16 years before the collection was discovered.
5:05:01 > 5:05:05Now, at last, the words and pictures created by wounded men,
5:05:05 > 5:05:10can be seen more widely than their creators ever imagined.
5:05:16 > 5:05:20And Olive's collection is currently on show in the Ulster museum.
5:05:20 > 5:05:23Now, each war has its own unique soundtrack,
5:05:23 > 5:05:27be it Jimi Hendrix in Vietnam, or Vera Lynn in World War II.
5:05:27 > 5:05:31Michael, what was the sound of World War I?
5:05:31 > 5:05:36Although there were phonographs and some recorded material,
5:05:36 > 5:05:39the vast majority of the songs came from the music hall.
5:05:39 > 5:05:43You've got the classic things like
5:05:43 > 5:05:46We Don't Want To Lose You, But We Think You Ought To Go...
5:05:46 > 5:05:52# Oh, we don't want to lose you... #
5:05:52 > 5:05:56It's all part of the patriotic feel that they were trying
5:05:56 > 5:06:00to instil, which is why there were so many people who were enlisting.
5:06:00 > 5:06:04So when they get here, we're in Thiepval Woods at the moment,
5:06:04 > 5:06:08and they're in these trenches, what songs are they listening to here?
5:06:08 > 5:06:10What are they singing?
5:06:10 > 5:06:12The classic one, the one that everyone knows,
5:06:12 > 5:06:14is It's A Long Way To Tipperary.
5:06:14 > 5:06:18# It's a long way to Tipperary
5:06:18 > 5:06:23# It's a long way to go... #
5:06:23 > 5:06:28This was sung as the expeditionary force were landing in 1914,
5:06:28 > 5:06:32and it just happened that the Daily Mail correspondent was there
5:06:32 > 5:06:35when they were singing that song as they came off the ship.
5:06:35 > 5:06:37Had he been a mile down the road,
5:06:37 > 5:06:39they could have been singing another song.
5:06:39 > 5:06:41But it was a marching song,
5:06:41 > 5:06:45and one of the key things about this song was, could you march to it?
5:06:45 > 5:06:50# Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag
5:06:50 > 5:06:53# And smile, smile, smile... #
5:06:53 > 5:06:56Pack Up Your Troubles is a really interesting one
5:06:56 > 5:07:02because that was 1915, and in fact a competition was held,
5:07:02 > 5:07:07and the guys who wrote the song thought it was piffle
5:07:07 > 5:07:10and thought it was hilarious that it was then being
5:07:10 > 5:07:13used as the troops were marching off to war.
5:07:13 > 5:07:17So when it goes from marching and patriotic songs,
5:07:17 > 5:07:21it starts to become quite sentimental and nostalgic.
5:07:21 > 5:07:26You get more and more sentimental songs from around 1915, 1916.
5:07:26 > 5:07:32You know, Home Sweet Home, actually, was extremely popular.
5:07:33 > 5:07:40# Be it ever so humble
5:07:40 > 5:07:47# There's no place like home... #
5:07:48 > 5:07:52Say here in Thiepval Woods, they're singing songs,
5:07:52 > 5:07:54they're so close to the enemy front line.
5:07:54 > 5:07:57They wouldn't do that. It was discouraged on the front line,
5:07:57 > 5:07:59for obvious reasons,
5:07:59 > 5:08:02and also, moving up to the front line, they didn't sing.
5:08:02 > 5:08:07# The bells of hell go ting-a-ling, for you but not for me. #
5:08:07 > 5:08:11Apparently it was sung as the troops were marching away from the front
5:08:11 > 5:08:13to the guys who were going into the front line,
5:08:13 > 5:08:16and they would emphasise the word "you".
5:08:16 > 5:08:18They weren't prescriptive in what they were doing.
5:08:18 > 5:08:21They just sang whatever was in the head.
5:08:21 > 5:08:25# Here we are, here we are here we are again
5:08:25 > 5:08:29# Hello! Hello!
5:08:29 > 5:08:33# Hello, hello, hello... #
5:08:33 > 5:08:37It's not just about keeping the spirits up of the troops here,
5:08:37 > 5:08:41of course - it's keeping the spirits up of the families at home.
5:08:41 > 5:08:44# Has anybody here seen Kelly... #
5:08:44 > 5:08:48I love the fact that it was surrounded by birdsong,
5:08:48 > 5:08:52and, you know, nature will always find a way through.
5:08:52 > 5:08:56- But to imagine those songs... - It's pretty overwhelming.
5:09:03 > 5:09:08As well as music, war has its own defining images.
5:09:08 > 5:09:11In a world of 24-hour rolling news,
5:09:11 > 5:09:15should the interpretation of war be left to artists?
5:09:17 > 5:09:20War is something that most of us
5:09:20 > 5:09:23probably only ever experience through here, the newsroom.
5:09:23 > 5:09:27And since the Vietnam War, the sight of news crews
5:09:27 > 5:09:29bunkering down with troops has become common.
5:09:29 > 5:09:31But before television,
5:09:31 > 5:09:34governments found a different method of capturing battle,
5:09:34 > 5:09:36commissioning war artists
5:09:36 > 5:09:40to experience and interpret what they encountered.
5:09:40 > 5:09:43In 2002, professor of photography
5:09:43 > 5:09:46and head of the Belfast School of Art, Paul Seawright,
5:09:46 > 5:09:49was sent to Afghanistan as a war artist.
5:09:49 > 5:09:52What is the role of the war artist?
5:09:53 > 5:09:56Well, the idea of the war artist is kind of counter to the media,
5:09:56 > 5:09:59I guess, is probably the best way to think about that.
5:09:59 > 5:10:01Wars are photographed and filmed by the media.
5:10:01 > 5:10:04That's how we encounter war mostly.
5:10:04 > 5:10:07The war artist tries to bring a different voice to that,
5:10:07 > 5:10:11something, I guess maybe more poetic or slower,
5:10:11 > 5:10:14less informed or directed by other agencies.
5:10:14 > 5:10:17The idea of the independent artist going to a war
5:10:17 > 5:10:20to give us something that's perhaps more reflective,
5:10:20 > 5:10:23more complex in terms of what it does than the media might do.
5:10:23 > 5:10:27But why would a government or a body invest in an artist
5:10:27 > 5:10:29to capture their experience of war?
5:10:30 > 5:10:33I think it's essential that governments face up
5:10:33 > 5:10:35to their responsibility
5:10:35 > 5:10:37of trying to somehow document
5:10:37 > 5:10:41in a much more emotive and open, unattached way,
5:10:41 > 5:10:42to the kind of things...
5:10:42 > 5:10:44These are huge issues in the world.
5:10:44 > 5:10:47I mean, war... We send people off to fight and die.
5:10:47 > 5:10:50For that just to be recorded in an official capacity by the government
5:10:50 > 5:10:53or the military themselves, would be a disaster for us.
5:10:53 > 5:10:56Having independent people in those situations is crucial.
5:10:56 > 5:10:58When I did the Afghanistan commission,
5:10:58 > 5:11:01I had a lovely note from Seamus Heaney saying how essential
5:11:01 > 5:11:06he thought it was that writers, poets, playwrights, painters, should
5:11:06 > 5:11:10go to war because their account of that war will be absolutely unique.
5:11:10 > 5:11:14As we know with looking at war art from the First World War now,
5:11:14 > 5:11:15it's an insight into that war
5:11:15 > 5:11:18that you cannot get from any other mediation of it.
5:11:19 > 5:11:22Are they truly independent, though?
5:11:22 > 5:11:26What's the crossover between an official war artist
5:11:26 > 5:11:27and pure propaganda?
5:11:27 > 5:11:31Originally, it was called the official war artist.
5:11:31 > 5:11:33That term became very contentious.
5:11:33 > 5:11:35Artists were turning down the commissions
5:11:35 > 5:11:37because they didn't want to be an official anything.
5:11:37 > 5:11:40It runs against the grain of being an artist.
5:11:40 > 5:11:42So the "official" thing going was quite important,
5:11:42 > 5:11:44and the independence of the artist
5:11:44 > 5:11:47is really crucial to that whole project being successful.
5:11:47 > 5:11:50The only way I'd ever have accepted doing a commission like that
5:11:50 > 5:11:52was to have complete independence.
5:11:52 > 5:11:55The way the process works, and I'm on the commissioning committee
5:11:55 > 5:11:57at the Imperial War Museum, is you identify artists
5:11:57 > 5:12:00whose work might be suitable, and then they make proposals.
5:12:00 > 5:12:04All the commissioning committee does is facilitate your project.
5:12:04 > 5:12:06Can these be artworks in their own right?
5:12:06 > 5:12:09I'm thinking of official war artists from the Great War,
5:12:09 > 5:12:12like Sir John Lavery, or William Connor.
5:12:12 > 5:12:15Their work clearly was intended as propaganda,
5:12:15 > 5:12:18but as time has gone on, we can look at it very differently now.
5:12:18 > 5:12:21A lot of that art doesn't feel like propaganda now. At the time it was.
5:12:21 > 5:12:25Look at some of those paintings, and they're quite celebratory almost.
5:12:25 > 5:12:27Blue skies and very rich colours.
5:12:27 > 5:12:30But at the same time, there are people producing paintings
5:12:30 > 5:12:35in the very same capacity that are very black and sombre and difficult.
5:12:35 > 5:12:37I think it's to do with the individual.
5:12:37 > 5:12:40The more versions we have, the more narratives we have,
5:12:40 > 5:12:44the more voices we have, be it artists, journalists, be it writers,
5:12:44 > 5:12:46anyone at all, it's all of value.
5:12:46 > 5:12:49And in fact it will all impact, I think, eventually
5:12:49 > 5:12:53on how we might engage or not engage in conflicts in the future.
5:13:06 > 5:13:09Men from right across the island of Ireland
5:13:09 > 5:13:11fought here on these battlefields,
5:13:11 > 5:13:15including Francis Ledwidge from Slane in County Meath.
5:13:15 > 5:13:19Now, Slane is probably best known these days for its rock concerts,
5:13:19 > 5:13:22but it was also the home place of this Irish poet,
5:13:22 > 5:13:27whose work, arguably, should be as well known as Wilfred Owen's
5:13:27 > 5:13:29or Siegfried Sassoon's.
5:13:29 > 5:13:32When I was young I had a care
5:13:32 > 5:13:35Lest I should cheat me of my share
5:13:35 > 5:13:37Of that which makes it sweet to strive
5:13:37 > 5:13:39For life, and dying still survive,
5:13:39 > 5:13:42A name in sunshine written higher
5:13:42 > 5:13:44Than lark or poet dare aspire.
5:13:47 > 5:13:49When we think of the great war poets,
5:13:49 > 5:13:53we think of Owen, Sassoon, Kipling.
5:13:53 > 5:13:57But here in Slane in County Meath lived one of the finest,
5:13:57 > 5:13:59yet lesser-known Irish poets -
5:13:59 > 5:14:00Francis Ledwidge.
5:14:02 > 5:14:04He was born in August 1887
5:14:04 > 5:14:08in this very cottage in Janeville, Slane in Ireland.
5:14:08 > 5:14:11The eighth of nine children in a poverty-stricken family.
5:14:11 > 5:14:14Francis was only five when his father, Patrick,
5:14:14 > 5:14:17died prematurely, which forced his wife
5:14:17 > 5:14:20and the children out to work at an early age.
5:14:20 > 5:14:24Strongly built with striking brown eyes and a handsome face,
5:14:24 > 5:14:28Ledwidge was a keen poet, writing wherever he could,
5:14:28 > 5:14:31sometimes even on gates and fence posts.
5:14:32 > 5:14:34While working as a road labourer,
5:14:34 > 5:14:38he won the patronage of the writer Lord Dunsany,
5:14:38 > 5:14:42after he wrote to him enclosing copybooks of his early work.
5:14:42 > 5:14:46Dunsany, a man of letters already well-established in Dublin
5:14:46 > 5:14:50and London literary circles, promoted Ledwidge in Dublin,
5:14:50 > 5:14:53where he introduced him to the burgeoning literary scene
5:14:53 > 5:14:54and the Abbey Theatre.
5:14:55 > 5:14:59He encouraged the young writer to become a fixture at the theatre,
5:14:59 > 5:15:03to absorb the plays and the actors' interaction with the written word,
5:15:03 > 5:15:05thus expanding his own horizons.
5:15:07 > 5:15:10Ledwidge was a keen patriot and Nationalist
5:15:10 > 5:15:12and a founding member, with his brother Joseph,
5:15:12 > 5:15:15of the Slane branch of the Irish Volunteers,
5:15:15 > 5:15:19a Nationalist force sworn to defend the introduction of Home Rule
5:15:19 > 5:15:21for Ireland, by force if need be.
5:15:27 > 5:15:30On the outbreak of war in August 1914,
5:15:30 > 5:15:33and on account of Ireland's involvement in the war,
5:15:33 > 5:15:37the Irish Volunteers split into two factions -
5:15:37 > 5:15:38the National Volunteers,
5:15:38 > 5:15:41who supported John Redmond's appeal to join Irish regiments
5:15:41 > 5:15:44in support of Great Britain's war efforts,
5:15:44 > 5:15:45and those who did not.
5:15:46 > 5:15:49Francis was originally of the latter party,
5:15:49 > 5:15:50but changed his mind,
5:15:50 > 5:15:54declaring that it was because "Britain stood between Ireland
5:15:54 > 5:15:57"and an enemy common to our civilisation,
5:15:57 > 5:16:01"and I would not have her say she defended us
5:16:01 > 5:16:04"while we did nothing at home but pass resolutions."
5:16:06 > 5:16:12In October 1914, Francis enlisted in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers,
5:16:12 > 5:16:14initially serving in Turkey and Serbia,
5:16:14 > 5:16:16and was promoted to Lance Corporal.
5:16:18 > 5:16:20While recovering from injury in Manchester,
5:16:20 > 5:16:23news reached him of the Easter Uprising
5:16:23 > 5:16:27and the execution of his good friend and fellow poet Thomas MacDonagh.
5:16:27 > 5:16:30He became angry and disillusioned
5:16:30 > 5:16:31and was finally court-martialed
5:16:31 > 5:16:34and demoted for overstaying his home leave,
5:16:34 > 5:16:39though his corporal stripes would be restored when he went back to war.
5:16:40 > 5:16:43What is certainly true is that Frank's views were
5:16:43 > 5:16:45crystallised by the deaths of his friends
5:16:45 > 5:16:49after the Rising executions, of course, by the British Army.
5:16:49 > 5:16:51It's worth saying as well that he was court-martialed
5:16:51 > 5:16:53after the Rising, I think, for insubordination.
5:16:53 > 5:16:56During the court martial, he was accused of being a traitor.
5:16:56 > 5:16:58He reacted extremely strongly to that,
5:16:58 > 5:17:01because, of course, that's a multivalent term,
5:17:01 > 5:17:02it's got many meanings,
5:17:02 > 5:17:05particularly for an Irishmen in British uniform at that time.
5:17:05 > 5:17:09How did Frank's attitude to war change after 1916
5:17:09 > 5:17:11and the executions?
5:17:11 > 5:17:14Well, let's not forget that Frank had the chance to be invalided out.
5:17:14 > 5:17:17He was given the means to do so and refused.
5:17:17 > 5:17:21He never waivered, as far as I can see, from his writings,
5:17:21 > 5:17:25from his views that he was fighting against a great evil.
5:17:25 > 5:17:28An enemy, as he put it, of civilisation.
5:17:28 > 5:17:32Ledwidge endured harsh conditions in Gallipoli in 1915,
5:17:32 > 5:17:36however, his poetry evokes a sense of peace and simplicity,
5:17:36 > 5:17:37not violence.
5:17:37 > 5:17:41A sentiment which appealed to many readers during the war.
5:17:41 > 5:17:44Then in the lull of midnight, gentle arms
5:17:44 > 5:17:48Lifted him slowly down the slopes of death
5:17:48 > 5:17:50Lest he should hear again the mad alarms
5:17:50 > 5:17:54Of battle, dying moans, and painful breath.
5:17:54 > 5:17:56And where the earth was soft for flowers we made
5:17:56 > 5:18:00A grave for him that he might better rest.
5:18:00 > 5:18:04So, Spring shall come and leave it sweet arrayed,
5:18:04 > 5:18:08And there the lark shall turn her dewy nest.
5:18:10 > 5:18:15As one critic commented about the poems and songs of the fields,
5:18:15 > 5:18:17they are the spontaneous expression
5:18:17 > 5:18:19of his simple love of the Irish fields,
5:18:19 > 5:18:22and the feeling of these songs is sincere enough
5:18:22 > 5:18:25to take us back from the present fields of war.
5:18:28 > 5:18:29On the 31st of July 1917,
5:18:29 > 5:18:33a group from Ledwidge's battalion of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers
5:18:33 > 5:18:36were road laying in preparation for an assault
5:18:36 > 5:18:38during the third Battle of Ypres.
5:18:38 > 5:18:42While Ledwidge was drinking tea in a mud hole with his comrades,
5:18:42 > 5:18:46a shell exploded alongside, killing the poet and five others.
5:18:46 > 5:18:50Ledwidge's poetic legacy, what Seamus Heaney calls
5:18:50 > 5:18:52the "twilit note" was,
5:18:52 > 5:18:57like his political life, unseen for many decades.
5:18:57 > 5:19:01Now, however, he is being heralded as a man of our times,
5:19:01 > 5:19:04one in whom "All the strains crisscross".
5:19:06 > 5:19:08And now I'm drinking wine in France,
5:19:08 > 5:19:11The helpless child of circumstance.
5:19:11 > 5:19:14Tomorrow will be loud with war,
5:19:15 > 5:19:18How will I be accounted for?
5:19:18 > 5:19:20It is too late now to retrieve
5:19:20 > 5:19:24A fallen dream, too late to grieve
5:19:24 > 5:19:27A name unmade, but not too late
5:19:27 > 5:19:31To thank the gods for what is great;
5:19:31 > 5:19:35A keen-edged sword, a soldier's heart,
5:19:35 > 5:19:38Is greater than a poet's art.
5:19:38 > 5:19:41And greater than a poet's fame
5:19:41 > 5:19:44A little grave that has no name.
5:19:44 > 5:19:48Whence honour turns away in shame.
5:19:54 > 5:19:59Belfast poet Michael Longley's dad Richard fought in these fields
5:19:59 > 5:20:00and survived.
5:20:00 > 5:20:04This place has been a constant inspiration in Michael's work.
5:20:04 > 5:20:07Here he is reading the poem Harmonica.
5:20:07 > 5:20:12From the Western Front and The Arts Show, goodnight.
5:20:24 > 5:20:28A tommy drops his harmonica in No Man's Land.
5:20:29 > 5:20:35My dad like old Anaximines breathes in and out
5:20:35 > 5:20:40Through the holes and reeds and finds this melody.
5:20:41 > 5:20:49Our souls are air. They hold us together. Listen.
5:20:49 > 5:20:55A music-hall favourite lasts until the end of time.
5:20:55 > 5:21:02My dad is playing it. His breath contains the world.
5:21:02 > 5:21:07The wind is playing an orchestra of harmonicas.