0:00:10 > 0:00:15The whole concept of the Somme is hugely important to the Loyalist community...
0:00:15 > 0:00:17Protestant community.
0:00:21 > 0:00:23It means so many different things -
0:00:23 > 0:00:28sacrifice, loyalty, commitment, pain, sorrow...
0:00:31 > 0:00:33..it's so huge.
0:00:33 > 0:00:36So really huge within our community.
0:00:36 > 0:00:40I think the way the Somme is used by Unionists
0:00:40 > 0:00:42is a one-dimensional view of history.
0:00:42 > 0:00:45But history is anything but one-dimensional.
0:00:45 > 0:00:46It's layered and it's complex.
0:00:46 > 0:00:49It has many cul-de-sacs.
0:00:49 > 0:00:53It brings you into spaces you didn't want to go in the first place.
0:01:01 > 0:01:05I'm prepared to explore because I'm confident.
0:01:05 > 0:01:07And Tom's Republicanism isn't contagious.
0:01:13 > 0:01:15As an Irish Republican,
0:01:15 > 0:01:18I don't adhere to the war aims of the British state.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21Nevertheless, I also recognise
0:01:21 > 0:01:26that all of those who served on the Western Front,
0:01:26 > 0:01:29and who came from this island, are a part of my history.
0:01:34 > 0:01:40My sense is there is a change going on within the Irish Republican community about the Great War.
0:01:40 > 0:01:45Let's see if I'm right. I'm not going to sit at home and think, "Maybe I'm right."
0:01:45 > 0:01:47Let's go and find out. Let's explore.
0:01:48 > 0:01:49Switch on the light.
0:02:05 > 0:02:09It's quite idyllic at the moment, but I can't imagine what the smell...
0:02:09 > 0:02:12- This would have been no-man's-land, wouldn't it?- It would have been.
0:02:12 > 0:02:15You'd have got popped from both sides here.
0:02:15 > 0:02:19'The first day of the Battle of the Somme was the most costly day
0:02:19 > 0:02:21'in the history of the British Army.
0:02:21 > 0:02:25'50,000 casualties killed, wounded and missing were sustained on that day.'
0:02:27 > 0:02:31The Ulster Division on the first day of the Somme...
0:02:31 > 0:02:33The figures are not specific.
0:02:33 > 0:02:34But there were over
0:02:34 > 0:02:365,000 casualties in the Ulster Division
0:02:36 > 0:02:38killed, wounded or missing.
0:02:38 > 0:02:40There were over 2,000 of those dead.
0:02:40 > 0:02:43This is Connaught Cemetery,
0:02:43 > 0:02:46in a front line right by Thiepval Wood.
0:02:47 > 0:02:51And so is this where they came out to face the German lines?
0:02:51 > 0:02:57I understand they burst out of there at 7.30am and attempt to traverse
0:02:57 > 0:03:02right to left up Schwaben Redoubt which was held by the Germans.
0:03:02 > 0:03:05How many men are in this cemetery?
0:03:05 > 0:03:07- I think there's about 1,500 here. - 1,500?!
0:03:09 > 0:03:13The British attack was across a long stretch of about 15 miles -
0:03:13 > 0:03:15something over 15 miles of the front.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18And the British divisions were set along this,
0:03:18 > 0:03:25including the Ulster Division, opposite Thiepval which was very heavily defended.
0:03:30 > 0:03:33A good many people were under the impression
0:03:33 > 0:03:36that the Ulster Division attacked Thiepval village.
0:03:36 > 0:03:37They didn't.
0:03:37 > 0:03:39It was the 32nd Division on the right
0:03:39 > 0:03:41that was to take Thiepval Village.
0:03:41 > 0:03:44Over on the left, the 29th Division,
0:03:44 > 0:03:46they were to take Beaumont Hamel,
0:03:46 > 0:03:48and we were dead in the centre.
0:03:53 > 0:03:58The Ulstermen came out of Thiepval Wood towards the German position.
0:03:58 > 0:04:05At 7.30am on 1st July, that's when they set off across no-man's land
0:04:05 > 0:04:07towards the German positions.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11SHELLS AND MORTAR FIRE
0:04:21 > 0:04:24So many young men killed.
0:04:24 > 0:04:27There was nothing we could do to help them.
0:04:27 > 0:04:31They were falling around you but you weren't allowed to stop.
0:04:31 > 0:04:32You just had to keep going.
0:04:34 > 0:04:36So many young men killed...
0:04:37 > 0:04:39Blown to pieces.
0:04:50 > 0:04:55The young people laying here are from the laneways and roadways
0:04:55 > 0:04:57of the society that I come from.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00Innocent, virtuous.
0:05:00 > 0:05:03Simply on the basis that they'd never been anywhere.
0:05:04 > 0:05:08Never travelled any great distance to be plucked from their homes
0:05:08 > 0:05:10and planted down...
0:05:10 > 0:05:16willing, in the most part, to do for king and country.
0:05:17 > 0:05:21I think one has to say that what happened to them...
0:05:21 > 0:05:25absolutely incredible, and I mean incredible.
0:05:27 > 0:05:31- See, they came up here. - They came out of the wood behind us.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34- And I imagine it was right across... - A whole line of men.
0:05:34 > 0:05:35- Yeah.- Aye.
0:05:36 > 0:05:40I suppose their sense was that there are plenty of us
0:05:40 > 0:05:42and here we go...
0:05:43 > 0:05:46- The enemy have been softened up with a bombardment.- Yes.
0:05:46 > 0:05:49But the enemy weren't softened up.
0:05:49 > 0:05:55The offensive had been preceded by more than a week's bombardment.
0:05:55 > 0:05:58The British high command, and the ordinary British soldier,
0:05:58 > 0:06:00had put their faith in the guns,
0:06:00 > 0:06:05the 1,500 guns that had fired off millions of shells for a week,
0:06:05 > 0:06:10that it would have destroyed the German positions and cut the wire.
0:06:15 > 0:06:18In fact, although there were more guns than before,
0:06:18 > 0:06:20and the bombardment was bigger than ever before,
0:06:20 > 0:06:22it wasn't enough.
0:06:22 > 0:06:25It neither destroyed the German position sufficiently well,
0:06:25 > 0:06:27nor did it cut the wire.
0:06:32 > 0:06:35This local battalion here, the 12th Rifles,
0:06:35 > 0:06:39they had the longest stretch of no-man's-land to cross over.
0:06:39 > 0:06:41So, they made three charges,
0:06:41 > 0:06:44and of course they were slaughtered every time they went out.
0:06:44 > 0:06:49In Ballyclare alone that day, out of the small community we had there,
0:06:49 > 0:06:52there were 30 men killed and over 100 wounded.
0:06:52 > 0:06:54You know, that was awful.
0:06:54 > 0:06:57An awful total for such a small community.
0:07:02 > 0:07:07Well, isn't it strange that those who did come back didn't want to talk about it?
0:07:08 > 0:07:13- Yeah.- That the horror of it was so deep in them...
0:07:13 > 0:07:17You could not not be traumatised by this.
0:07:17 > 0:07:19Or brutalised by this.
0:07:19 > 0:07:25- And the sense of, in living colour, man's inhumanity to man.- Mm.
0:07:25 > 0:07:27Walking through a butcher's shop.
0:07:28 > 0:07:30All of that had to have its..
0:07:30 > 0:07:34huge effect on the psychological outcomes.
0:07:35 > 0:07:39And then they headed up towards...
0:07:39 > 0:07:42- Schwaben Redoubt.- ..Redoubt.
0:07:47 > 0:07:50There was a good big fortress that the Germans had built.
0:07:50 > 0:07:53They said it couldn't be taken and they were quite definite about that.
0:07:54 > 0:07:57Our army commanders were of the same opinion
0:07:57 > 0:07:59but it had to be attacked.
0:07:59 > 0:08:03And the most peculiar thing about the Somme battle that day,
0:08:03 > 0:08:08was the Ulster Division was the only one who reached its objective.
0:08:08 > 0:08:11Out of all the divisions that took part in the Somme on that first day,
0:08:11 > 0:08:16and they took the place that wasn't supposed to be able to be taken - the Schwaben Redoubt.
0:08:25 > 0:08:29In some cases, some of the Ulster units had gone so quickly forwards
0:08:29 > 0:08:32that they hadn't mopped up the German trenches behind them.
0:08:32 > 0:08:35So they were left very badly positioned,
0:08:35 > 0:08:39they were left high and dry without support on each flank.
0:08:39 > 0:08:42The divisions to the right of them, the divisions to the left,
0:08:42 > 0:08:45did not secure their objectives.
0:08:45 > 0:08:49That meant the Ulstermen were open to enfilade fire...
0:08:49 > 0:08:52what the soldiers called... from the side.
0:09:02 > 0:09:03In my company,
0:09:03 > 0:09:08there was only four men left after the battle, including me.
0:09:09 > 0:09:10It was terrible
0:09:10 > 0:09:13seeing all those young men being slaughtered.
0:09:14 > 0:09:16Many of my friends died that day.
0:09:17 > 0:09:20They were falling at my feet.
0:09:20 > 0:09:23But you couldn't stop. You had to keep moving.
0:09:25 > 0:09:26It was terrible.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31I was wounded by some shrapnel, but it wasn't too bad.
0:09:31 > 0:09:33I was one of the lucky ones.
0:09:35 > 0:09:37How we all weren't killed is a mystery.
0:09:39 > 0:09:41I suppose it was just luck.
0:09:42 > 0:09:44But many weren't so lucky.
0:09:51 > 0:09:55What happened here had such a dreadful impact...
0:09:56 > 0:09:58..on the streets of the Shankill...
0:09:59 > 0:10:02..and the Loyalist areas of the north.
0:10:03 > 0:10:05Well, we didn't have CNN or...
0:10:05 > 0:10:07The newspapers would have got bits and pieces,
0:10:07 > 0:10:10- but then the telegrams started arriving.- Yes.
0:10:10 > 0:10:13- It must have been awful to see a postman turn into your street.- Aye.
0:10:14 > 0:10:15You know, was he going to your door?
0:10:17 > 0:10:22You have the harrowing tale of the three Cumber brothers
0:10:22 > 0:10:28who probably had never been further than Ballygowan in their lives,
0:10:28 > 0:10:32and here they are at the Somme
0:10:32 > 0:10:34and they were killed instantly,
0:10:34 > 0:10:37together, by the same shell.
0:10:38 > 0:10:40Just wiped out.
0:10:40 > 0:10:42Their names are on the cenotaph in Cumber.
0:10:42 > 0:10:48I think it's awful. Just the sense that this just...wiped out. Gone.
0:10:48 > 0:10:52Gone. Never to give seed.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56A lineage just stopped.
0:10:56 > 0:11:00And a war that they didn't understand.
0:11:00 > 0:11:03"Ah, duty, we'll be there, we'll do...we'll follow..."
0:11:04 > 0:11:07I couldn't have understood that. And here they are - gone. Just...
0:11:09 > 0:11:10Maybe there is some poignancy
0:11:10 > 0:11:13in a cemetery being at both the bottom and top of the hill.
0:11:13 > 0:11:18I suppose it's where they started - at the bottom.
0:11:18 > 0:11:22- This one's at Schwaben Redoubt.- Yes.
0:11:22 > 0:11:25And the Mill Road cemetery.
0:11:25 > 0:11:29- How many people did you say were...? - I think it was about 1,300 soldiers buried...
0:11:30 > 0:11:32..in this cemetery.
0:11:34 > 0:11:39- In a sense, the root of the battle is to be seen in these stones. - Absolutely.
0:11:39 > 0:11:43- Isn't it? From 1st July. - Royal Irish Rifles.
0:11:43 > 0:11:47- What's his name? - T Halliday - a rifleman.
0:11:49 > 0:11:53I don't comprehend... I can't comprehend.
0:11:53 > 0:11:57And yet, I can comprehend better standing here on the terrain,
0:11:57 > 0:12:03seeing those names, better than I could before I came.
0:12:04 > 0:12:09There's a few insignia. What are they? Royal Irish Rifles?
0:12:09 > 0:12:12- Yeah.- Toman. Aye. Royal Irish Rifles.
0:12:12 > 0:12:14- It's a Newry name, Toman. - Is that where that...?
0:12:14 > 0:12:17Aye. We had a lot of Tomans in Newry. Watson...
0:12:17 > 0:12:22I, of course, don't adhere to the war aims or the political aims
0:12:22 > 0:12:25of a British Government during the First World War.
0:12:25 > 0:12:33But I do have a sense here this morning of the loss and the tragedy
0:12:33 > 0:12:35that is represented here for Ireland,
0:12:35 > 0:12:37on this hill.
0:12:39 > 0:12:45If this isn't about the tragedy of war and the futility of violence,
0:12:45 > 0:12:48then I'm not sure anybody knows what is.
0:12:50 > 0:12:53I come at it from a very political sense,
0:12:53 > 0:12:57and seeing this entirety of the Somme experience
0:12:57 > 0:12:59to the Unionist community,
0:12:59 > 0:13:03it must be very difficult to put that in the context
0:13:03 > 0:13:08of the waste of life that took place here on 1st July 1916.
0:13:10 > 0:13:15I think there is a piece that needs added as a caveat to all of this.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18The Ulstermen didn't die here alone.
0:13:18 > 0:13:21And they died in their large numbers, all of them...
0:13:23 > 0:13:25..because that's the way the world worked.
0:13:26 > 0:13:32So there are lots of... It isn't the simplicity of saying those lives were wasted,
0:13:32 > 0:13:34because that's true, and they were.
0:13:34 > 0:13:39Doesn't stop one appreciating the determination, the strength,
0:13:39 > 0:13:44the valour that was shown by people,
0:13:44 > 0:13:48but does connotate for me
0:13:48 > 0:13:55how the cannon fodder dies on the whim or the patheticism
0:13:55 > 0:13:57of someone else's politics.
0:14:08 > 0:14:13They were primarily drawn from the Protestant community.
0:14:13 > 0:14:16Many of them, if not most of them,
0:14:16 > 0:14:21had served in the Ulster Volunteer Force, which had been established before the war
0:14:21 > 0:14:24to secure Ulster within the Union.
0:14:24 > 0:14:28An armed, paramilitary force. So they had some military experience.
0:14:33 > 0:14:38We're talking here about people who had no concept of the issue of decommissioning.
0:14:39 > 0:14:44And who indeed behaved in a traitorous fashion
0:14:44 > 0:14:49towards British authority when they ran guns in to Northern Ireland
0:14:49 > 0:14:54to defend what they believed to be their freedom, religion and laws.
0:14:57 > 0:14:59They would have fought Britain.
0:14:59 > 0:15:03Be under no illusion about that, they would have fought Britain.
0:15:03 > 0:15:05And then ended up going to fight FOR Britain.
0:15:12 > 0:15:19There is a line that people try to extend from the Somme
0:15:19 > 0:15:21through to our current conditions.
0:15:22 > 0:15:27And in that respect... I hold my hand up,
0:15:27 > 0:15:30I was a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force.
0:15:30 > 0:15:35A modern-day group of people with the same attitudes in terms of duty
0:15:35 > 0:15:38and sense, whether you like them or don't like them.
0:15:40 > 0:15:41But there is a fundamental difference.
0:15:52 > 0:15:55Those men were legitimate.
0:15:55 > 0:15:56They were legitimate.
0:15:56 > 0:16:00That was a legitimate battle that they took place in from their own context.
0:16:01 > 0:16:03It is not the same as a dirty,
0:16:03 > 0:16:09stinking little war that we have taken that line from.
0:16:09 > 0:16:12There is a difference - a huge difference.
0:16:22 > 0:16:29Well, their war was, "Here we are, we're up front, we know you're there, we know we're here..."
0:16:31 > 0:16:34"..and our intent is not good towards each other."
0:16:34 > 0:16:38Our war was very much about skulking in hedgerows.
0:16:38 > 0:16:43About shooting people in the back of the head, rather than advancing towards them.
0:16:46 > 0:16:49It has been a dirty, stinking little war
0:16:49 > 0:16:51and whilst there are similarities
0:16:51 > 0:16:55in terms of human sentiment about why one does one's duty...
0:16:56 > 0:17:00..I won't besmirch the name of the 36th Ulster Division,
0:17:00 > 0:17:02by suggesting they were the same.
0:17:11 > 0:17:13When you go down the Western Front,
0:17:13 > 0:17:18you can see where these people fell because the British Army's policy
0:17:18 > 0:17:23was to bury the casualties as close to where they died as possible.
0:17:24 > 0:17:28Today, these are unbearably beautiful places,
0:17:28 > 0:17:34places of peace and stillness in a landscape that seems untouched by war.
0:17:34 > 0:17:39And yet, if you look, when you get to the top of the hill and by the Ulster tower,
0:17:39 > 0:17:43there is a huge memorial to the missing at Thiepval.
0:17:44 > 0:17:49On that huge memorial are 73,000 names of people
0:17:49 > 0:17:50who have no known grave.
0:17:50 > 0:17:54That have simply disappeared - they were blown to smithereens,
0:17:54 > 0:17:59either on the 1st July or on the days, weeks, months that followed.
0:18:01 > 0:18:05All of these monuments to that period
0:18:05 > 0:18:08are an indictment of failure.
0:18:08 > 0:18:15As a Republican, particularly in the context of the waste of Irish lives,
0:18:15 > 0:18:19that in a sense is being confirmed for me today.
0:18:22 > 0:18:26Where I make contact, first of all, is because I am here.
0:18:26 > 0:18:31I think it's around the common humanity of the ordinary soldier,
0:18:31 > 0:18:33but also in the suffering of his family,
0:18:33 > 0:18:40and the residue that was left in Ireland from these battlefields.
0:18:40 > 0:18:42The sorrow and the pain of loss.
0:18:45 > 0:18:50David was talking about families waiting or worrying,
0:18:50 > 0:18:53or not wanting the postman to call.
0:18:53 > 0:18:55But it must have been whole streets
0:18:55 > 0:18:59that were afraid when they saw a postman.
0:19:00 > 0:19:05Indeed, the telegrams that came from here, didn't just go to the Shankill Road.
0:19:05 > 0:19:08They went to Dublin, they went to the Falls Road,
0:19:08 > 0:19:09they went all over Ireland.
0:19:11 > 0:19:14SHELLS AND MORTAR FIRE
0:19:27 > 0:19:30The biggest Irish myth about the Somme,
0:19:30 > 0:19:36is that only Protestants and only Unionists fought and died there...
0:19:36 > 0:19:43that only Ulster-Protestant blood was shed for the war effort on the Somme.
0:19:48 > 0:19:52In fact, many thousands of Irishmen, from the north and south,
0:19:52 > 0:19:56Protestants and Catholics, Unionists and Nationalists, fought there
0:19:56 > 0:20:00and died there for a variety of reasons,
0:20:00 > 0:20:05but they did so believing that what they were doing was the right thing.
0:20:05 > 0:20:12I only learned in later life that really it was only ever from my community's point of view,
0:20:12 > 0:20:17or at least it seemed that way, that it was only ever about the 36th Ulster Division.
0:20:17 > 0:20:19And the 10th and 16th were never mentioned.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26Northern Catholics joined the British Army
0:20:26 > 0:20:32almost as willingly as their Protestant compatriots in Ireland.
0:20:32 > 0:20:36Particularly working-class Catholics from West Belfast.
0:20:36 > 0:20:38They didn't, however, join the Ulster Division.
0:20:38 > 0:20:41They might not have wanted to join the Ulster Division,
0:20:41 > 0:20:43even if they'd been asked.
0:20:43 > 0:20:47So the Catholics of West Belfast joined the 6th Battalion, the Connaught Rangers.
0:20:47 > 0:20:50The Catholics of the glens of Antrim joined the Cameronians -
0:20:50 > 0:20:53they went across to Scotland and joined the Cameronians.
0:20:53 > 0:21:00So what you find is that the politics of Ireland found its way
0:21:00 > 0:21:02onto the battlefield of the Somme.
0:21:03 > 0:21:08In early September, they were involved in an operation to capture two villages,
0:21:08 > 0:21:10called Guillemont and Ginchy.
0:21:10 > 0:21:13They secured their objectives,
0:21:13 > 0:21:17though at the cost of about 2,000 casualties.
0:21:17 > 0:21:19"For the glory of God
0:21:19 > 0:21:21"and the glory of Ireland" in Gaelic.
0:21:22 > 0:21:26"In commemoration of the victories of Guillemont and Ginchy, 1916.
0:21:26 > 0:21:31"In memory of those who fell therein and all the Irishmen who gave their lives in the Great War,
0:21:31 > 0:21:33"rest in peace."
0:21:33 > 0:21:36Well, of course, they were Irishmen,
0:21:36 > 0:21:43and they were encouraged to join the British Army by Redmond,
0:21:43 > 0:21:48on the basis that the First World War was a struggle for the independence of small nations.
0:21:48 > 0:21:52Indeed, was a struggle for Irish independence.
0:21:52 > 0:21:58Remember, home rule had been delayed because of the First World War.
0:21:58 > 0:22:02And most of these men expected home rule to be put in place
0:22:02 > 0:22:05after the war was over.
0:22:07 > 0:22:09Tom Kettle was one of the Nationalists.
0:22:09 > 0:22:13He had been an MP who fought with the 16th Irish Division
0:22:13 > 0:22:16in the Battle of the Somme and died there as well.
0:22:16 > 0:22:20And he, reflecting after the Easter Rising,
0:22:20 > 0:22:25after fellow Nationalists - men who he had been associated with...
0:22:25 > 0:22:27among them were friends of his.
0:22:27 > 0:22:31He said they will be remembered, those who fought in Dublin in 1916
0:22:31 > 0:22:33will be remembered as heroes.
0:22:33 > 0:22:39"If I'm remembered at all," he said, "it will be simply as a bloody British officer."
0:22:50 > 0:22:54There can't have been anything more upsetting and painful
0:22:54 > 0:22:57than to have returned home from the hell of this
0:22:57 > 0:23:00into a society where you were an alien.
0:23:05 > 0:23:12And there are comparisons made between the returning Irish and the Vietnam veterans.
0:23:12 > 0:23:14That there was no heroes' welcome.
0:23:16 > 0:23:19In a way, I think it's worse than that.
0:23:19 > 0:23:23They became part of non-history. They were just airbrushed out of history.
0:23:23 > 0:23:27Although many of them came back and joined the IRA.
0:23:27 > 0:23:30Many would have come back and joined the new Free State Army.
0:23:32 > 0:23:35The First World War had not only changed the world,
0:23:35 > 0:23:37but it had also changed Ireland.
0:23:39 > 0:23:41Home rule had been delayed.
0:23:41 > 0:23:44The 1916 rebellion, the Easter rebellion, had taken place...
0:23:45 > 0:23:51There was the beginnings of the War of Independence.
0:23:52 > 0:23:54And they came back to an Ireland
0:23:54 > 0:23:58that really didn't want to know about them or their sacrifice.
0:24:02 > 0:24:05There was what you might call a national amnesia.
0:24:05 > 0:24:07Or a Nationalist amnesia.
0:24:07 > 0:24:09There was no Unionist amnesia
0:24:09 > 0:24:15because the exploits of the 36th Ulster Division were celebrated and commemorated continually,
0:24:15 > 0:24:21and became part of the "creation myth" of Northern Ireland.
0:24:21 > 0:24:24"We have died for the Union, we have died for the British Empire,
0:24:24 > 0:24:26"we will remain within the United Kingdom."
0:24:26 > 0:24:31It is that sacrifice which then is used
0:24:31 > 0:24:35by the early Unionist governments
0:24:35 > 0:24:42as a means of consolidating Unionist identity.
0:24:42 > 0:24:45This is what we paid in our blood to defend Empire.
0:24:47 > 0:24:50It is loyalty to Empire.
0:24:50 > 0:24:55And therefore, it is that theme that Unionist governments
0:24:55 > 0:24:59begin to weave into the fabric of Unionist life.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06I think that I feel British.
0:25:06 > 0:25:11I can't imagine that I should factor in whether I feel more British because these people died,
0:25:11 > 0:25:15or whether I would have felt less British had they lived.
0:25:15 > 0:25:21I think at the end of the day, the waste that we see here
0:25:21 > 0:25:25has had an effect on the society that I live in.
0:25:28 > 0:25:32When our leadership was constantly complaining, "Well, look what we did for you..."
0:25:32 > 0:25:35As the years go on, it was, "Look what my father did for you."
0:25:35 > 0:25:37And then, "Look what my grandfather did for you."
0:25:37 > 0:25:41Then there comes a time when that isn't able to be said.
0:25:41 > 0:25:43I think we need to stand on our own two feet...
0:25:44 > 0:25:49Stop using this sacrifice but fully understand this sacrifice
0:25:49 > 0:25:54as the cannon fodder that happens when the world gets it wrong.
0:25:54 > 0:25:58When we fixate on our narrow politics about why we're here,
0:25:58 > 0:26:04then what we do, is perhaps we maybe give some reason or excuse almost,
0:26:04 > 0:26:05for this cannon fodder.
0:26:06 > 0:26:10SHELLS AND MORTAR FIRE
0:26:17 > 0:26:21At the battle of Messines, in June 1917,
0:26:21 > 0:26:25the 36th Ulster Division and the 16th Irish Division
0:26:25 > 0:26:29fought alongside each other for the first time.
0:26:36 > 0:26:38Messines was much better planned.
0:26:38 > 0:26:39We had more experience.
0:26:40 > 0:26:42Somme was our first real taste of action.
0:26:44 > 0:26:46And it taught us a lot.
0:26:50 > 0:26:53One of the reasons why Messines was such a success,
0:26:53 > 0:27:00was that the British generals who planned it were beginning to get the technical details right.
0:27:00 > 0:27:06They placed a series of huge mines deep underground -
0:27:06 > 0:27:07there were 21 of these.
0:27:07 > 0:27:11About a million pounds of high explosive.
0:27:11 > 0:27:17And at the moment of the offensive starting, these mines are let off.
0:27:17 > 0:27:19LOUD EXPLOSION
0:27:22 > 0:27:25The noise would have deafened you.
0:27:25 > 0:27:29And you couldn't see a thing in front of you - what with the black smoke.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32Some of the men were blown off their feet as they went forward,
0:27:32 > 0:27:34but I don't think anyone was seriously hurt.
0:27:36 > 0:27:37I was lucky at Messines.
0:27:39 > 0:27:42Our gas blew back into our own lines.
0:27:42 > 0:27:44And a lot of the men suffered from it.
0:27:45 > 0:27:47The gas masks weren't very good then.
0:27:54 > 0:28:00The point of the battle of Messines was to capture the high hills, the plateau -
0:28:00 > 0:28:05it's not very high - next to Ypres in Messines, which dominated the battlefield.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09And the Ulster Division and the 16th Irish Division
0:28:09 > 0:28:14were given the job of capturing a village called Wytschaete,
0:28:14 > 0:28:19or "White Sheet" they called it, which they did very successfully.
0:28:22 > 0:28:24There's a road going up into the village
0:28:24 > 0:28:27in which the Ulster Division are on one side,
0:28:27 > 0:28:29and the 16th Irish Division were on the other side.
0:28:33 > 0:28:36And we were sitting in a ring at the entrance to White Sheet,
0:28:36 > 0:28:39that was at the beginning of the Battle of Messines.
0:28:39 > 0:28:43And I says, "Boys, the crack's great but I'm away for a smoke!"
0:28:43 > 0:28:47And I went inside, there was little notches that you could sit in,
0:28:47 > 0:28:49so I sat down there and had a smoke.
0:28:49 > 0:28:55And I wasn't smoking two minutes, when a high velocity shell burst in the centre of them.
0:28:57 > 0:29:00There wasn't a man living. Only myself.
0:29:00 > 0:29:02And I was buried up to my waist.
0:29:02 > 0:29:06And deaf. For six or seven months, I heard nothing.
0:29:08 > 0:29:12And eight dead men - and I was the only one alive.
0:29:16 > 0:29:20We saw the same types of headstones down at the Somme,
0:29:20 > 0:29:23where both those brave groups of men are represented.
0:29:27 > 0:29:31But I found it almost more moving here,
0:29:31 > 0:29:34in the sense that it was together.
0:29:36 > 0:29:43And as they lie here together, I'd love the luxury of being able to ask a question.
0:29:43 > 0:29:45Was it worth it?
0:29:45 > 0:29:48Was what you did together, was it worth it?
0:29:57 > 0:30:00My mate, big John Hunter...
0:30:00 > 0:30:03was wounded in the arm at the Somme on 1st July.
0:30:04 > 0:30:05He went out again to the front...
0:30:07 > 0:30:09..but he got killed at White Sheet.
0:30:11 > 0:30:13He gave me his watch.
0:30:14 > 0:30:18Something told him that he was going to get killed that night.
0:30:18 > 0:30:21Says I to him, "Have a bit of sense. Nobody knows that."
0:30:22 > 0:30:24But he had it in his head.
0:30:25 > 0:30:29"See, I'm going to get it up here tonight."
0:30:33 > 0:30:35And, by God, he did get it.
0:30:42 > 0:30:44- The 16th Irish Division...- Yeah.
0:30:44 > 0:30:46..fought with valour.
0:30:47 > 0:30:51Whatever their national perspective, whatever their religion,
0:30:51 > 0:30:56the words that stick in my mind for the people who lie here is that,
0:30:56 > 0:31:00"They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old."
0:31:01 > 0:31:03"Age shall not weary them,
0:31:03 > 0:31:05"nor the years condemn."
0:31:06 > 0:31:10"At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
0:31:10 > 0:31:12"we will remember them."
0:31:23 > 0:31:26The mine crater is now full of water.
0:31:26 > 0:31:29It's a nicer place now than it was then.
0:31:29 > 0:31:32So...peaceful.
0:31:34 > 0:31:36But very sad.
0:31:37 > 0:31:38See, in that cemetery
0:31:38 > 0:31:42were so many men from the Rifles buried there.
0:31:43 > 0:31:44But they are at peace now.
0:31:54 > 0:31:57"Royal Irish Rifles".
0:31:57 > 0:32:00- "7th June...- 19...
0:32:00 > 0:32:02"Known to be buried in the cemetery".
0:32:05 > 0:32:06My God. Look at this one.
0:32:06 > 0:32:10- "William TH Bridgett". - That's the one you talked about.
0:32:10 > 0:32:13"Royal Irish Rifles. 7th June, aged 20".
0:32:13 > 0:32:15"Better to go out with honour
0:32:15 > 0:32:17"than to survive with shame".
0:32:17 > 0:32:19Why this stone is important to me
0:32:19 > 0:32:24is his mother, Annie Bridgett, is buried in the City Cemetery.
0:32:24 > 0:32:26Oh, right.
0:32:26 > 0:32:32'Well, I do it for West Belfast during the West Belfast Festival.'
0:32:32 > 0:32:35I used to go into Milltown Cemetery and do the Republican graves,
0:32:35 > 0:32:38until one day I said to myself, "I don't go into the City Cemetery."
0:32:38 > 0:32:41So I started to go into the City Cemetery.
0:32:43 > 0:32:45What I started to come across
0:32:45 > 0:32:47was family inscriptions
0:32:47 > 0:32:49of First World War soldiers,
0:32:49 > 0:32:52and I've come across about 70 of these inscriptions.
0:32:54 > 0:32:57One of the graves that I do on my tour
0:32:57 > 0:32:59is a woman called Annie Bridgett.
0:33:02 > 0:33:06On her stone, it says, "Ireland's first grand mistress.
0:33:06 > 0:33:09"Ireland's first women's Orange Lodge".
0:33:09 > 0:33:12But on the side of the stone,
0:33:12 > 0:33:15there is an inscription to her son, William Bridgett,
0:33:15 > 0:33:17who was killed at Messines.
0:33:19 > 0:33:22And it's this, in a way, so an Orangewoman...
0:33:22 > 0:33:24leads me into the First World War
0:33:24 > 0:33:27and then leads me into the broader picture
0:33:27 > 0:33:32of Irish service in the British Army during the First World War.
0:33:32 > 0:33:35And that's why I think history is exciting,
0:33:35 > 0:33:37because you start off at point A
0:33:37 > 0:33:41but you don't quite know where you're going to end up.
0:33:43 > 0:33:45And so for me,
0:33:45 > 0:33:50it really makes something very real here,
0:33:50 > 0:33:53in that there's a bridge between this spot here,
0:33:53 > 0:33:56and this grave
0:33:56 > 0:33:59and the grave in the City Cemetery on the Falls Road.
0:33:59 > 0:34:00Amazing.
0:34:00 > 0:34:03- It's another piece of that history that...- Yeah. Our connection.
0:34:06 > 0:34:09Two months after the Battle of Messines,
0:34:09 > 0:34:13the Ulster Division and the 16th Irish Division
0:34:13 > 0:34:18fought together for the second and last time at Langemark,
0:34:18 > 0:34:20which was one of those series of engagements
0:34:20 > 0:34:23which collectively make up the Battle of Passchendaele.
0:34:23 > 0:34:26And Passchendaele is, after the Somme,
0:34:26 > 0:34:29the most terrible of all the battles of the Western Front.
0:34:29 > 0:34:32SHELLS AND MORTAR FIRE
0:34:34 > 0:34:37And there, both the Ulster Division and the 16th Irish Division
0:34:37 > 0:34:38were torn to bits.
0:34:45 > 0:34:48The Ypres battlefield just represented
0:34:48 > 0:34:50one gigantic slough of despond
0:34:50 > 0:34:54into which floundered battalions, brigades
0:34:54 > 0:34:56and divisions of infantry without end
0:34:56 > 0:34:59to be shot to pieces or drowned
0:34:59 > 0:35:03until at last, and with immeasurable slaughter,
0:35:03 > 0:35:07we had gained a few miles of liquid mud.
0:35:22 > 0:35:26I'm numbed by what I find here.
0:35:26 > 0:35:28There's 12,000 soldiers buried in this graveyard
0:35:28 > 0:35:33and another 34,000 whose names are on the screen wall at the back of the cemetery,
0:35:33 > 0:35:35and their remains couldn't be found.
0:35:42 > 0:35:44And one gets the sense the more I see
0:35:44 > 0:35:49of Ypres and the Ypres salient, and indeed the Western Front,
0:35:49 > 0:35:53the more I get a sense of thousands and thousands of men
0:35:53 > 0:35:56just being poured into a vast mixing machine.
0:35:56 > 0:35:58SHELLS AND MORTAR FIRE
0:36:03 > 0:36:05One fella, lying down,
0:36:05 > 0:36:09I'll never forget the words he said.
0:36:09 > 0:36:11"Aye," he says, "how you feeling?"
0:36:12 > 0:36:13"Not too well," he says.
0:36:15 > 0:36:17"Do you know what I want?" he says.
0:36:17 > 0:36:20"I want the Lord to take me out of here."
0:36:32 > 0:36:35I find it hugely emotional.
0:36:35 > 0:36:38I find the whole concept of Passchendaele hugely emotional.
0:36:38 > 0:36:41Um...
0:36:43 > 0:36:47Maybe, you know, in a foolish sense,
0:36:47 > 0:36:49I picture all of these people standing up.
0:36:54 > 0:36:56I'd love to hear those men stand up,
0:36:56 > 0:37:02those ranks of now what are gravestones stand up
0:37:02 > 0:37:04and give us an appreciation or definition of war...
0:37:06 > 0:37:08Because maybe if we heard them...
0:37:10 > 0:37:12It might be impossible, but if we heard them,
0:37:12 > 0:37:19maybe out adherence to militarism and war might be changed.
0:37:29 > 0:37:34And so the curtain fell over this tortured country
0:37:34 > 0:37:38of unmarked graves and unburied fragments of men,
0:37:38 > 0:37:40murder and massacre...
0:37:42 > 0:37:44The innocent slaughtered for the guilty...
0:37:45 > 0:37:49The poor man for the sake of the greed of the already rich.
0:37:50 > 0:37:52The man of no authority
0:37:52 > 0:37:55made a victim of the man who had gathered importance...
0:37:56 > 0:37:58..and wished to keep it.
0:37:59 > 0:38:04David Starrett, 9th Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles.
0:38:15 > 0:38:19This is, you know, a journey to the Somme.
0:38:20 > 0:38:23In a way, that journey doesn't end,
0:38:23 > 0:38:28because I see it in the context of the broader subject
0:38:28 > 0:38:31of the history of the island of Ireland,
0:38:31 > 0:38:36and indeed the history of the relationship between England and Ireland.
0:38:38 > 0:38:43I think the memory of this will be fairly strong in me
0:38:43 > 0:38:46for a long time to come.
0:38:46 > 0:38:48Wars have to end.
0:38:48 > 0:38:50And no matter how cruel and bloody
0:38:50 > 0:38:53and enormous this war was, it ended...
0:38:54 > 0:38:56..and people had to rebuild.
0:38:57 > 0:39:02It was also the recognition that to carry the bitternesses
0:39:02 > 0:39:04was to mean further war
0:39:04 > 0:39:09and that people had to come to terms with the fact that the war was over.
0:39:19 > 0:39:21How do I, as an Irish Republican,
0:39:21 > 0:39:27deal with all those Irish men who served on the Western Front,
0:39:27 > 0:39:30how do I come to terms with
0:39:30 > 0:39:33their sense of duty, the way they saw the world,
0:39:33 > 0:39:35the way they saw their commitment?
0:39:35 > 0:39:38Because, of course, my experience of the British Army
0:39:38 > 0:39:40is a very, very negative experience,
0:39:40 > 0:39:43and the experience of my community of the British Army
0:39:43 > 0:39:45is very negative.
0:39:45 > 0:39:49And so the challenge is coming out of conflict,
0:39:49 > 0:39:53is to deal with memory and to find some common ground
0:39:53 > 0:39:58and to find a way of dealing with memory that doesn't hurt our dead.
0:40:04 > 0:40:10In watching and trying to understand the death, the carnage, the destruction,
0:40:10 > 0:40:13it seems strange that out of it what I'd like to create
0:40:13 > 0:40:15is peaceful co-existence.
0:40:15 > 0:40:17I think the exploration,
0:40:17 > 0:40:21whether it be on the Somme or other explorations yet to come...
0:40:22 > 0:40:26..are vitally important, I think, for all of us.
0:40:26 > 0:40:30What happened to us and what is happening to us?
0:40:30 > 0:40:31Two very valid questions.