0:00:08 > 0:00:11August 1914.
0:00:11 > 0:00:15Ireland is on the brink of war - civil war.
0:00:15 > 0:00:17Ulster Unionists have armed themselves
0:00:17 > 0:00:20to resist Irish home rule.
0:00:20 > 0:00:22Nationalists have formed their own army.
0:00:22 > 0:00:26Ireland is a tinderbox ready to explode.
0:00:28 > 0:00:30But then this happens.
0:00:36 > 0:00:39Germany invades Belgium and France.
0:00:42 > 0:00:45Two years later, both Unionists and Nationalists
0:00:45 > 0:00:48are fighting the Germans on one of the bloodiest battlefields
0:00:48 > 0:00:50of the First World War -
0:00:50 > 0:00:51the Somme.
0:00:53 > 0:00:56100 years on, the families of Irish soldiers on the Somme
0:00:56 > 0:00:58relive their experiences
0:00:58 > 0:01:02through the personal testimonies of those who were there.
0:01:03 > 0:01:06"I have walked right into where the counterattack is coming.
0:01:06 > 0:01:08"We're in a death-trap."
0:01:08 > 0:01:10"Our rifles was jammed and they couldn't get us,
0:01:10 > 0:01:13"so we threw a couple of Mills bombs over,
0:01:13 > 0:01:15"and that was the end of them."
0:01:15 > 0:01:17I think about how I would have felt,
0:01:17 > 0:01:19or the guys in my year at school, how they would have felt.
0:01:19 > 0:01:21You would have just felt so scared.
0:01:23 > 0:01:25"I never was as light-hearted in all my life,
0:01:25 > 0:01:28"and I never was as proud of my countrymen.
0:01:28 > 0:01:30"Everyone was so light-hearted
0:01:30 > 0:01:33"that all they wanted was to reach the Germans."
0:01:33 > 0:01:37These men, first and foremost, had become soldiers
0:01:37 > 0:01:39and their job was to kill.
0:01:40 > 0:01:43When I talk to my son as he gets older,
0:01:43 > 0:01:45and he sees the picture we have of him in our house,
0:01:45 > 0:01:49he'll know the courage...of...
0:01:49 > 0:01:51- A member of the family. - ..of Uncle Jim.
0:01:56 > 0:02:00WHISTLING: Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag
0:02:00 > 0:02:02Nick Starrett and his niece Lauren
0:02:02 > 0:02:06are visiting Ballykinlar Army Base in County Down,
0:02:06 > 0:02:08one of the training camps for soldiers from Ulster
0:02:08 > 0:02:10in the First World War.
0:02:12 > 0:02:14The original firing range is still in use today.
0:02:16 > 0:02:19Even the remains of some of the practice trenches have survived.
0:02:23 > 0:02:25Nick's grandad David trained here.
0:02:25 > 0:02:29He was only 16 years old when war broke out.
0:02:29 > 0:02:32They opened a recruiting office in the old Town Hall.
0:02:32 > 0:02:35My, we almost tore the place to pieces.
0:02:35 > 0:02:38At long last, it came my turn to go in.
0:02:38 > 0:02:40"Well, boy, what's your age?"
0:02:40 > 0:02:42"16 years, sir."
0:02:42 > 0:02:44"Under age, son. Next, please."
0:02:44 > 0:02:47I could hardly believe I was turned down,
0:02:47 > 0:02:50but I spotted a change of staff, so I had another go.
0:02:50 > 0:02:53The new officer says, "Name?"
0:02:53 > 0:02:54"David Starrett, sir."
0:02:54 > 0:02:56"Age?"
0:02:56 > 0:02:57"19 years, sir."
0:02:57 > 0:03:00My, I had the face of brass.
0:03:00 > 0:03:01And it worked.
0:03:05 > 0:03:07Like many in the Ulster Division,
0:03:07 > 0:03:10David Starrett had signed the Ulster Covenant
0:03:10 > 0:03:13in protest against the Home Rule Bill.
0:03:13 > 0:03:15Before his enlistment,
0:03:15 > 0:03:17he had been training with the Ulster Volunteer Force
0:03:17 > 0:03:19to fight Irish self-government.
0:03:21 > 0:03:23Now, he and his UVF pals
0:03:23 > 0:03:27were eager to demonstrate their loyalty to crown and country.
0:03:29 > 0:03:32But not only Unionists volunteered for the British Army.
0:03:36 > 0:03:40You wrote an article in the Journal
0:03:40 > 0:03:44about 20 years ago, was it?
0:03:44 > 0:03:481996, called "Nationalist Derry's Battle of the Somme."
0:03:48 > 0:03:52That's where I found out about my grandfather
0:03:52 > 0:03:56and that he had written a letter from the Somme,
0:03:56 > 0:04:00because you had that later in the article...
0:04:00 > 0:04:02In all of its entirety, nearly.
0:04:02 > 0:04:06And my father never passed on any information to me at all
0:04:06 > 0:04:10about my grandfather, so I know very little about him.
0:04:11 > 0:04:13Eddie's grandfather, Edward Friel,
0:04:13 > 0:04:17was a Catholic middle-aged man with a wife, three children,
0:04:17 > 0:04:20and a well-paid job as compositor at the Derry Journal,
0:04:20 > 0:04:24and yet, he decided to take a pay cut, leave his family
0:04:24 > 0:04:26and go to war.
0:04:27 > 0:04:32The place where he joined up provides clues to his motivation.
0:04:33 > 0:04:37Edward Friel didn't enlist in your local recruiting depot.
0:04:37 > 0:04:43He came along by special invitation on December 5th 1914.
0:04:43 > 0:04:46The Irish National Volunteers, people associated with them,
0:04:46 > 0:04:49were invited to come here, deliberately, to St Columb's Hall.
0:04:49 > 0:04:51It is the manifestation
0:04:51 > 0:04:54of the grandeur of Catholicism in Derry, right?
0:04:54 > 0:04:58- OK.- So it is deliberately selected for the Irish National Volunteers,
0:04:58 > 0:05:01who were largely Catholic...
0:05:01 > 0:05:06- Right.- They enlist under a special Irish Brigade in the Irish Division.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11Nationalists who joined the 16th Irish Division
0:05:11 > 0:05:13hoped that their support for the British war effort
0:05:13 > 0:05:16would ensure Irish home rule after the war.
0:05:17 > 0:05:21I would have absolutely no doubt about it that he came here
0:05:21 > 0:05:24as a prominent member of the Irish National volunteers,
0:05:24 > 0:05:27as an Irish patriot, as an Irish Catholic,
0:05:27 > 0:05:31and he had heard and been told by his leaders,
0:05:31 > 0:05:33even Bishop McHugh here had told him,
0:05:33 > 0:05:37that the issues at stake just weren't home rule for Ireland.
0:05:37 > 0:05:40It was the rights of small nations, but even bigger than that,
0:05:40 > 0:05:43Christian civilisation was at stake.
0:05:43 > 0:05:45That is quite interesting, because in his letter, he says,
0:05:45 > 0:05:49"Father O'Connell told us if any of us fell,
0:05:49 > 0:05:52"we would die a glorious death.
0:05:52 > 0:05:55"He wished he could change places with any man in the Brigade,
0:05:55 > 0:05:59"because we knew, if we fell, he would go straight to heaven,
0:05:59 > 0:06:03"as we had all received absolution hours before the charge."
0:06:03 > 0:06:07This is a devout Catholic
0:06:07 > 0:06:11who obviously believes that he is getting absolution,
0:06:11 > 0:06:14he is getting a plenary indulgence, and if he is killed,
0:06:14 > 0:06:16he is going straight to heaven.
0:06:16 > 0:06:18This is somebody who is unifying
0:06:18 > 0:06:23both his basic faith and his national belief.
0:06:23 > 0:06:26'My name is Jack Christie.
0:06:26 > 0:06:28'I was born on February 10th...'
0:06:28 > 0:06:32But faith or politics weren't the only motivation for joining up.
0:06:32 > 0:06:33CHIRPING
0:06:33 > 0:06:37- The budgies in the background...! - Yes.
0:06:37 > 0:06:38At the age of 90,
0:06:38 > 0:06:42Jack Christie recorded his recollections of the war.
0:06:42 > 0:06:44'I went to Agnes Street Centre...'
0:06:44 > 0:06:45This is the first time
0:06:45 > 0:06:48that great-grandson John hears Jack's voice.
0:06:48 > 0:06:50'..it was about then.
0:06:50 > 0:06:54'When I left school, at about 12 years of age,
0:06:54 > 0:06:59'I went to work in the old Ulster Spinning Company,
0:06:59 > 0:07:02'and I hated it. I hated it.
0:07:02 > 0:07:04'It was an awful place,
0:07:04 > 0:07:07'working in a spinning mill in those days.
0:07:07 > 0:07:09'The reason I'm telling you about this
0:07:09 > 0:07:12'is that when I came to join up,
0:07:12 > 0:07:16'in no way had it anything to do with patriotism.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19'It was simply... Here is an escape route,
0:07:19 > 0:07:23'to get out of the mill, for surely life holds more
0:07:23 > 0:07:27'than what this mill can offer.'
0:07:27 > 0:07:29Imagine going to work at 12.
0:07:29 > 0:07:31I couldn't believe that, when I heard that.
0:07:31 > 0:07:33- Do you fancy that, John? - Definitely not. Definitely not.
0:07:33 > 0:07:35Struggling to work at 20.
0:07:35 > 0:07:37LAUGHTER
0:07:37 > 0:07:42He was very honest, wasn't he, about his reasons for going to war?
0:07:42 > 0:07:43No pretence.
0:07:43 > 0:07:45You know, I've quite this pastoral image
0:07:45 > 0:07:49of young men, you know, wanting to fight for Queen and country,
0:07:49 > 0:07:51but that wasn't necessarily the case.
0:07:51 > 0:07:53It was, "Let's get out of this menial job
0:07:53 > 0:07:55"and maybe see a bit of Europe."
0:07:55 > 0:07:58I suppose that is very honest, as we've said.
0:07:58 > 0:08:00- Yeah. - It's a lot more real for me.
0:08:04 > 0:08:08Both Nationalist and Unionist volunteers trained for about a year.
0:08:08 > 0:08:11# ..Ragtime infantry
0:08:11 > 0:08:14# We cannot fight, we cannot march
0:08:14 > 0:08:17# What earthly use are we...? #
0:08:17 > 0:08:18Even though many of them
0:08:18 > 0:08:21had been in paramilitary units before the war,
0:08:21 > 0:08:26a lot of work was needed to turn them into proper soldiers.
0:08:26 > 0:08:28We concentrate on two things at the outset -
0:08:28 > 0:08:31knocking the beer and politics out of all ranks
0:08:31 > 0:08:34and building up esprit-de-corps in its place, on the one hand,
0:08:34 > 0:08:38while on the other, we foster, inculcate, teach and build up
0:08:38 > 0:08:41the bloodlust for the discomfiture of the enemy,
0:08:41 > 0:08:45without which no war is possible for long, and no victory certain.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49This photo shows men of the Ulster Division
0:08:49 > 0:08:52on the boat to France in October 1915,
0:08:52 > 0:08:55days before many of them would enter the trenches.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01The documents at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
0:09:01 > 0:09:05suggest that the division was still not fit for battle.
0:09:07 > 0:09:10The archive holds the private correspondence
0:09:10 > 0:09:12of Major General Oliver Nugent,
0:09:12 > 0:09:16a Unionist from County Cavan with close links to the UVF.
0:09:16 > 0:09:19He was appointed commander of the Ulster Division
0:09:19 > 0:09:20shortly before they embarked for France.
0:09:24 > 0:09:28Relatives of the general meet with Nugent's biographer, Nick Perry.
0:09:28 > 0:09:30He has discovered a letter
0:09:30 > 0:09:34that reveals what Nugent thought of the Ulster soldiers
0:09:34 > 0:09:36when he took over their command.
0:09:38 > 0:09:40"I am not too happy about the Ulster Division
0:09:40 > 0:09:43"for it cannot be denied that some of them have very little discipline.
0:09:43 > 0:09:46"The Belfast Brigade is awful.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49"They have absolutely no discipline and their officers are awful.
0:09:49 > 0:09:51"I am very much disturbed about them.
0:09:51 > 0:09:53"I don't think they are fit for service
0:09:53 > 0:09:55"and I should be very sorry to have to trust them."
0:09:56 > 0:09:58- That's quite something... - Yes.
0:09:58 > 0:10:00..to have to say, isn't it?
0:10:00 > 0:10:05And then he turned it round, so that they became, sort of, famously...
0:10:05 > 0:10:06- Yes. - ..aggressive and reliable.
0:10:06 > 0:10:08Well, he did. I mean, I...
0:10:08 > 0:10:12You're right, this is a key brigade in the division, 107 Brigade.
0:10:12 > 0:10:14It was made up of battalions
0:10:14 > 0:10:17recruited from working-class areas like the Shankill and Sandy Row,
0:10:17 > 0:10:19so they are a pretty tough group,
0:10:19 > 0:10:22and they proved later to be outstanding soldiers.
0:10:22 > 0:10:24But at this moment, I think
0:10:24 > 0:10:27he had real concerns about whether the Brigade would be fit to go
0:10:27 > 0:10:30into the trenches and so he decided he had to take drastic action.
0:10:34 > 0:10:37Nugent sacked the commander of the Belfast Brigade
0:10:37 > 0:10:39and several other officers.
0:10:39 > 0:10:45One of the officers who survived the purge was Frank Percy Crozier.
0:10:45 > 0:10:46At the start of 1916,
0:10:46 > 0:10:50he was confirmed as commander of the West Belfast battalion.
0:10:52 > 0:10:55Crozier's granddaughter, Carol Germa,
0:10:55 > 0:10:56has travelled from Canada to France
0:10:56 > 0:10:59to trace her grandad's actions on the Somme,
0:10:59 > 0:11:02together with Nick and Lauren.
0:11:02 > 0:11:04Their relative, David Starrett,
0:11:04 > 0:11:07was Crozier's batman, or personal assistant.
0:11:08 > 0:11:10I never met my grandfather.
0:11:10 > 0:11:12He passed before I was born.
0:11:12 > 0:11:19But I think my grandfather certainly relied on your grandad a lot.
0:11:23 > 0:11:26Shortly after Crozier was made battalion commander,
0:11:26 > 0:11:27two of his men deserted.
0:11:29 > 0:11:31You've got to imagine, along the fence line, here,
0:11:31 > 0:11:34we've got a substantial brick wall, because this was a monastery
0:11:34 > 0:11:36and it was surrounded entirely
0:11:36 > 0:11:38by a large, high brick wall...
0:11:38 > 0:11:42One of the men was a young private by the name of James Crozier.
0:11:42 > 0:11:44He was no relation,
0:11:44 > 0:11:47but Frank had promised his mother to look after him.
0:11:47 > 0:11:50We know Crozier had lined his battalion up
0:11:50 > 0:11:52in this sunken row to our right...
0:11:52 > 0:11:55On 27th February 1916,
0:11:55 > 0:11:58James was taken to these gardens in the town of Mailly-Maillet.
0:11:58 > 0:12:02We've got the firing squad directly to your left here.
0:12:02 > 0:12:04The sun is behind them
0:12:04 > 0:12:08and the prisoner is at his shooting post,
0:12:08 > 0:12:09against the bank, there,
0:12:09 > 0:12:12with the bank acting as a natural rifle butt,
0:12:12 > 0:12:14so virtually in front of us here
0:12:14 > 0:12:17is where the execution would have taken place.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27"A chap who had been missing some time
0:12:27 > 0:12:30"was picked up by the Red Caps near Amiens
0:12:30 > 0:12:32"and returned under arrest.
0:12:32 > 0:12:34"Then an officer ran from the line under fire,
0:12:34 > 0:12:37"and in the sight of his own men.
0:12:37 > 0:12:39"The colonel was off the deep end
0:12:39 > 0:12:43"for days about both, and few could get anywhere near him.
0:12:43 > 0:12:46"Both were tried by field general court martial
0:12:46 > 0:12:49"and the man was shot and the officer got off."
0:12:52 > 0:12:55"The colonel was more upset than I had ever seen him.
0:12:55 > 0:12:59"'To have to shoot one of your own men', he kept saying,
0:12:59 > 0:13:04"'a lad who joined voluntarily, had the courage to join up,
0:13:04 > 0:13:07"'refused to hide under any excuse to keep out.'"
0:13:07 > 0:13:10"'But the officer got a free pardon?' I said.
0:13:10 > 0:13:12"And the colonel only repeated the words
0:13:12 > 0:13:15"as if he did not quite understand them."
0:13:19 > 0:13:23"I arranged that enough spiritous liquor is left beside him
0:13:23 > 0:13:24"to sink a ship.
0:13:25 > 0:13:28"In the morning at dawn, as he is produced,
0:13:28 > 0:13:32"I see he's practically lifeless and quite unconscious.
0:13:32 > 0:13:35"He has already been bound with ropes.
0:13:35 > 0:13:37"There are hooks on the post.
0:13:37 > 0:13:40"We always do things thoroughly in the Rifles.
0:13:40 > 0:13:41"He is hooked on
0:13:41 > 0:13:43"like dead meat in a butcher's shop.
0:13:47 > 0:13:50"The men of the firing party pick up their rifles and,
0:13:50 > 0:13:54"on the lowering of the handkerchief by the officer, they fire.
0:14:00 > 0:14:04"There is a pause. I wait.
0:14:04 > 0:14:07"I see the medical officer examining the victim.
0:14:07 > 0:14:09"He makes a sign.
0:14:09 > 0:14:12"The subaltern strides forward.
0:14:12 > 0:14:14"A single shot rings out.
0:14:14 > 0:14:16"Life is now extinct.
0:14:16 > 0:14:21"We march back to breakfast while the men of a certain company
0:14:21 > 0:14:23"pay their last tribute
0:14:23 > 0:14:27"at the graveside of an unfortunate comrade.
0:14:27 > 0:14:29"This is war."
0:14:38 > 0:14:39I just can't imagine it.
0:14:39 > 0:14:41Like, I mean, I think about how I would have felt,
0:14:41 > 0:14:43or the guys in my year at school,
0:14:43 > 0:14:48how they would have felt if they were in this situation
0:14:48 > 0:14:51and, I mean, you would have just felt so scared and...
0:14:51 > 0:14:53I don't know whether it was the right thing to do
0:14:53 > 0:14:56for someone so young and so scared.
0:14:56 > 0:14:59When you're actually there on the battlefield
0:14:59 > 0:15:02and worrying about, "Is everybody else
0:15:02 > 0:15:06"going to start doing it?", that's when you have to make
0:15:06 > 0:15:08those horrible, difficult decisions.
0:15:14 > 0:15:18There were no more desertions in Crozier's West Belfast battalion.
0:15:21 > 0:15:23Our trenches were in an awful state.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26They just had them cut in a rough way, with no duck boards down.
0:15:26 > 0:15:28And there was no drainage.
0:15:28 > 0:15:31The result was you were going up there up to the knees in mud.
0:15:35 > 0:15:38The dugout we were first in had a signpost outside it.
0:15:38 > 0:15:42"Welcome to Rat Run Hall." At first, we saw no sign of rats.
0:15:42 > 0:15:45But we decided to hang the emergency rations we had brought with us
0:15:45 > 0:15:48on a string bag from the roof to stop the rats getting at them.
0:15:48 > 0:15:51As it was dark, we noticed shadows moving around the bag,
0:15:51 > 0:15:53and then it started to swing.
0:15:53 > 0:15:56The rats were clambering over and swinging on the rations,
0:15:56 > 0:15:58trying to get at them.
0:16:01 > 0:16:04When you were in the dugouts, you were just like rats up there.
0:16:04 > 0:16:06You were with the rats, crawling about, out and in,
0:16:06 > 0:16:08on your hands and knees.
0:16:13 > 0:16:17So, this is Jim's cutlery that he brought to the front with him.
0:16:17 > 0:16:22Nice leather. You open it up, and it's a set of silver cutlery.
0:16:23 > 0:16:26Oh, yeah. And look what it says here.
0:16:27 > 0:16:32- "Joseph Rodgers & Sons, cutlers to Her Majesty."- It's lovely.
0:16:32 > 0:16:37So he's going camping with his cutlery made by the Queen's cutlers.
0:16:37 > 0:16:39- He's eating royally. - Yes, absolutely!
0:16:39 > 0:16:44For officers, it was easier to maintain a certain standard of life.
0:16:44 > 0:16:48Captain Jim Davidson was general manager of his father's business
0:16:48 > 0:16:50in East Belfast, the Sirocco Works,
0:16:50 > 0:16:52an international engineering firm.
0:16:52 > 0:16:55His life at home was great.
0:16:55 > 0:17:00He had a yacht, he had cars, he had a great social life.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04He was a keen sportsman. He loved car racing.
0:17:04 > 0:17:07And here I am in a ditch in the middle of a war,
0:17:07 > 0:17:11and it's such a contrast to his life
0:17:11 > 0:17:14and it just seems remarkable that he would choose to be here,
0:17:14 > 0:17:16because there were many people in his position
0:17:16 > 0:17:18who I'm sure avoided coming to serve.
0:17:18 > 0:17:23But he was intent on making the best of it, wasn't he?
0:17:23 > 0:17:26We've got this letter where he says...
0:17:27 > 0:17:31.."Mother dear, you might stop sending out apples,
0:17:31 > 0:17:33"as they don't arrive in very good condition,
0:17:33 > 0:17:36"and instead send me an occasional parcel of tinned things.
0:17:36 > 0:17:39- "Kippered herring and sausages - Palethorpes..."- Oh, the brand.
0:17:39 > 0:17:42Absolutely. "..also carry very well.
0:17:42 > 0:17:46"Would you please tell Malcolmson, when making up the usual parcel,
0:17:46 > 0:17:50"to include one tin of Cooper's marmalade instead of sweets
0:17:50 > 0:17:53"and to always send a gingerbread cake instead of varying the brand?"
0:17:53 > 0:17:57It's like ordering your hamper for Ascot, isn't it? It's incredible.
0:18:00 > 0:18:03Even without luxury supplies from home,
0:18:03 > 0:18:06some men found that life in the trenches could be tolerable.
0:18:07 > 0:18:13'I remember being in a dugout. It was in the side of a hill.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16'We were so happy in that dugout.
0:18:16 > 0:18:21'And I remember at nights you just lay on the floor, you know?
0:18:21 > 0:18:23'But you made yourself comfortable.
0:18:23 > 0:18:27'And you had your balaclava helmet you wore on your head
0:18:27 > 0:18:33'and you had an empty cigarette tin, and you stuck a candle in there.
0:18:33 > 0:18:34'You lit the candle.
0:18:34 > 0:18:40'In the quietness, you'd hear the sniper's bullet and machine gun
0:18:40 > 0:18:45'rattling, and the odd shell, and I'd think to myself about...
0:18:45 > 0:18:46'my comrades...
0:18:48 > 0:18:51'And you didn't know what was before you.
0:18:52 > 0:18:55'But as long as you were there, you didn't care.'
0:18:59 > 0:19:02While the Ulstermen were settling in to trench life,
0:19:02 > 0:19:05dramatic events unfolded back at home in Ireland.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12Irish Nationalists had split into two factions.
0:19:12 > 0:19:14While the moderate National Volunteers supported
0:19:14 > 0:19:17the British war effort, a radical minority saw
0:19:17 > 0:19:21Britain's difficulty as Ireland's opportunity.
0:19:24 > 0:19:27On Easter Monday, a group of radicals staged
0:19:27 > 0:19:30a rebellion in Dublin against British rule in Ireland.
0:19:33 > 0:19:35When word reached the soldiers in France,
0:19:35 > 0:19:39not only the Unionists of the Ulster Division, but also many of
0:19:39 > 0:19:43the predominantly Nationalist 16th Irish Division were appalled.
0:19:45 > 0:19:48I shall never forget the men's indignation.
0:19:48 > 0:19:51They felt they'd been stabbed in the back.
0:19:51 > 0:19:54I thought that the insurrection as such was a hopeless gamble.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57It should never have happened.
0:19:57 > 0:20:00Our men were furious with the Sinn Feiners
0:20:00 > 0:20:02and asked to be allowed to go and finish them up.
0:20:03 > 0:20:08The Jesuit chaplain Willie Doyle was with the 16th Irish Division
0:20:08 > 0:20:09at the time of the Rising.
0:20:09 > 0:20:12The originals of over 500 of his letters
0:20:12 > 0:20:14have only recently been discovered,
0:20:14 > 0:20:18together with several boxes of objects from his war service.
0:20:20 > 0:20:23In this box here we have a thing called a maniple.
0:20:23 > 0:20:27This is the first time that Willie Doyle's family are shown the find.
0:20:27 > 0:20:29..Right or left hand.
0:20:29 > 0:20:32And when he's giving absolution or giving High Communion,
0:20:32 > 0:20:34he would have worn this.
0:20:34 > 0:20:36And also, when he's giving the last rites to a soldier.
0:20:36 > 0:20:40- Is that blood?- It would seem to be blood on the sleeve of it.
0:20:40 > 0:20:42More than likely a soldier's blood.
0:20:42 > 0:20:45- I was going to say, some poor fella...- Yeah.
0:20:45 > 0:20:48And then there are various items in this box
0:20:48 > 0:20:51that would have been taken from the front.
0:20:51 > 0:20:54This is his rosary beads, so his own devotion.
0:21:00 > 0:21:02It's utterly moving...
0:21:04 > 0:21:09..that you're holding the rosaries that he actually used himself.
0:21:09 > 0:21:11It's a long time ago.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16Yeah. They are...gone through.
0:21:18 > 0:21:20- A long way.- Mm.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26In the same week that Dublin was shaken by the Easter Rising,
0:21:26 > 0:21:29Father Willie Doyle experienced modern warfare
0:21:29 > 0:21:31in its most vicious form.
0:21:32 > 0:21:34Near Hulluch, in the north of France,
0:21:34 > 0:21:36the Germans launched two gas attacks.
0:21:48 > 0:21:51"There they lay, scores of them, in the bottom of the trench,
0:21:51 > 0:21:54"in every conceivable posture of human agony...
0:21:55 > 0:21:59"..the clothes torn off their bodies in a vain effort to breathe,
0:21:59 > 0:22:04"while from end to end of that valley of death came one low,
0:22:04 > 0:22:07"unceasing moan from the lips of brave men
0:22:07 > 0:22:09"fighting and struggling for life.
0:22:13 > 0:22:16"I don't think you will blame me when I tell you
0:22:16 > 0:22:20"that more than once the words of absolution stuck in my throat
0:22:20 > 0:22:24"and the tears splashed down on the patient, suffering faces
0:22:24 > 0:22:27"of my poor boys as I leant down to anoint them.
0:22:28 > 0:22:33"One young soldier seized my two hands and covered them with kisses.
0:22:33 > 0:22:38"Another looked up and said, 'Oh, Father, I can die happy now.
0:22:38 > 0:22:42"'Sure I'm not afraid of death or anything else since I've seen you.'"
0:22:44 > 0:22:48It's incredibly powerful to read something like that or to try
0:22:48 > 0:22:51to even imagine what they were going through...
0:22:54 > 0:23:00..the scale of the horror and the sheer, visceral brutality of it.
0:23:00 > 0:23:05This would have been very early on in his chaplaincy,
0:23:05 > 0:23:09and it may well have been the first time that he ever experienced
0:23:09 > 0:23:10anything of that magnitude.
0:23:10 > 0:23:14And this is contemporaneous with the Easter Rising, 1916.
0:23:14 > 0:23:16So this is happening in the exact same time,
0:23:16 > 0:23:21and this is what his reality is. This is his Sackville Street GPO.
0:23:21 > 0:23:26This is where he gains his kind of redemption and sacraments
0:23:26 > 0:23:28- and does his best work.- Right.
0:23:30 > 0:23:3430 miles south of Hulluch, the men of the Ulster Division were soon
0:23:34 > 0:23:36to face their own baptism of fire.
0:23:38 > 0:23:42Along a front 25 miles long, close to one million British
0:23:42 > 0:23:46and French troops assembled for a joint offensive at the River Somme.
0:23:47 > 0:23:51It was the biggest deployment of British forces in the war so far.
0:23:54 > 0:23:58By 1916, the war on the Western Front had reached a stalemate.
0:23:58 > 0:24:02The Germans had built elaborate trench fortifications.
0:24:02 > 0:24:06The Somme offensive was designed to break through these defences
0:24:06 > 0:24:08in what was known as the Big Push.
0:24:11 > 0:24:15Several Irish units were to take part in the attack,
0:24:15 > 0:24:18such as the 1st and 2nd Royal Dublin Fusiliers
0:24:18 > 0:24:21or the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment.
0:24:21 > 0:24:24But these were regular army units.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27The Ulster Division was to be the only unit of volunteers
0:24:27 > 0:24:29from Ireland in the initial assault.
0:24:33 > 0:24:35As the day of the attack drew closer,
0:24:35 > 0:24:3939-year-old Captain Jim Davidson made a major life decision.
0:24:42 > 0:24:44Eileen was the best friend of his sister Kathleen,
0:24:44 > 0:24:48and when he was home on leave, Jim confessed his feelings for her.
0:24:50 > 0:24:53Back in the trenches, he decided to propose to her.
0:24:56 > 0:24:58We thought we had all of Jim's letters,
0:24:58 > 0:25:01but I actually found this one two days ago and I was so thrilled,
0:25:01 > 0:25:04and it's a letter to
0:25:04 > 0:25:07our great-grandmother, Kathleen, who was Jim's sister.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10And it's written just a couple of weeks before the Big Push
0:25:10 > 0:25:12at the Somme.
0:25:12 > 0:25:17And it reads, "Well, dear, it was good of you to write me
0:25:17 > 0:25:21"such a sweet letter about my engagement to Eileen.
0:25:21 > 0:25:24"I know you realise just how happy I feel about it
0:25:24 > 0:25:26"and that I need not say anything more.
0:25:26 > 0:25:30"We've been such good pals and know each other so well
0:25:30 > 0:25:33"that I think if only the war was safely over
0:25:33 > 0:25:37"we could look forward to a very happy future together."
0:25:37 > 0:25:40I think, you know, it's extraordinary that he's aware
0:25:40 > 0:25:42that they're building up for a major offensive,
0:25:42 > 0:25:47and he writes elsewhere in the letters that they weren't
0:25:47 > 0:25:51intending to tell anyone about their relationship, particularly,
0:25:51 > 0:25:55or to announce an engagement, but something just changed.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58He'd had a leave a couple of months before.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01And, you know, you start to think about, well, why was that?
0:26:01 > 0:26:03What made him do something now
0:26:03 > 0:26:06that he was intending to leave till after the war?
0:26:06 > 0:26:10I wonder how much being in the trenches focused his mind,
0:26:10 > 0:26:13because the tone of his later letters is very different
0:26:13 > 0:26:15than the tone of his previous letters,
0:26:15 > 0:26:20and it is almost as though he is becoming far more reflective about
0:26:20 > 0:26:26himself in a way that simply didn't happen while he was the important
0:26:26 > 0:26:30JS Davidson, son of Samuel Davidson, running the Sirocco Works.
0:26:30 > 0:26:34Here he is, he's a machine-gun corps captain
0:26:34 > 0:26:37- in a war situation who's never sure whether he's coming home.- Yeah.
0:26:37 > 0:26:42He carries on here, "Have had a trying time the last few days.
0:26:42 > 0:26:45"One of my best men was killed yesterday.
0:26:45 > 0:26:48"I feel his loss very keenly.
0:26:48 > 0:26:51"Coming through so many hard times with these men,
0:26:51 > 0:26:54"one gets a very deep affection for them."
0:26:54 > 0:26:58So he's perhaps feeling that things are getting quite dangerous for him.
0:26:58 > 0:27:01You know, he's seeing people who could be him
0:27:01 > 0:27:05who have now been killed very quickly
0:27:05 > 0:27:07or who have been injured and taken away.
0:27:08 > 0:27:11And it's starting to get a bit close to home.
0:27:11 > 0:27:13And so, as you say, perhaps that's what meant that
0:27:13 > 0:27:17when he was on his last leave and he knows these things are coming,
0:27:17 > 0:27:19he wasn't going to hang around any more.
0:27:19 > 0:27:20It's time to seize the day.
0:27:28 > 0:27:32In preparation for the attack, 3,000 British and French guns
0:27:32 > 0:27:35pounded the German lines for seven days and nights,
0:27:35 > 0:27:38with more than two and a half million shells.
0:27:39 > 0:27:43The Germans had never experienced a bombardment like that.
0:27:45 > 0:27:49The fire never stopped. They wanted to be sure of overkill.
0:27:49 > 0:27:53Nobody should be alive when their infantry left their trenches.
0:27:54 > 0:27:57Soldiers in the bunkers became hysterical.
0:27:57 > 0:28:00Even the rats became hysterical.
0:28:00 > 0:28:04Seven days and seven nights we had nothing to eat, nothing to drink,
0:28:04 > 0:28:09but constantly fire. Shell after shell burst upon us.
0:28:11 > 0:28:13In our hearts, we knew only one prayer -
0:28:13 > 0:28:16"Lord, relieve us of the pressure inside us.
0:28:16 > 0:28:18"Give us battle. Give us victory.
0:28:18 > 0:28:21"Lord God, let them come at last."
0:28:25 > 0:28:28The Ulster Division was to attack from this wood
0:28:28 > 0:28:30near the village of Thiepval
0:28:30 > 0:28:32and take five lines of German trenches
0:28:32 > 0:28:35over a distance of one and a half miles.
0:28:41 > 0:28:43In the night of the 30th of June,
0:28:43 > 0:28:46the Ulstermen moved into their forward trenches.
0:28:48 > 0:28:51As we entered our trenches, everything was in commotion.
0:28:51 > 0:28:54The first thing my platoon had to do was move to the side to allow
0:28:54 > 0:28:56the stretcher bearers to pass.
0:28:56 > 0:29:00They were carrying boys screaming in pain from shellshock.
0:29:02 > 0:29:05Our minds were almost numb with the constant sound
0:29:05 > 0:29:08and vibrations of guns firing and shells exploding.
0:29:09 > 0:29:13I have no fear of death, no fear at the moment.
0:29:13 > 0:29:16I don't yet know what it's like to face death, not yet.
0:29:16 > 0:29:18It's only a matter of hours, and then...
0:29:21 > 0:29:24Zero hour, the time of the attack, was 7.30.
0:29:33 > 0:29:36Disregarding the official battle plan,
0:29:36 > 0:29:39General Nugent had ordered the first wave to crawl into no-man's land
0:29:39 > 0:29:43while the British artillery barrage kept the Germans in their dugouts.
0:29:45 > 0:29:47WHISTLE BLOWS
0:29:47 > 0:29:48The tactic paid off.
0:29:52 > 0:29:557.35am. "A" line taken.
0:29:55 > 0:29:59There was no organised resistance, one or two Germans seen shooting.
0:30:01 > 0:30:02The beggars in those trenches must
0:30:02 > 0:30:05have had a horrible time of it during our bombardment.
0:30:05 > 0:30:07Most of them put up their hands.
0:30:09 > 0:30:12It seemed more like a riot than a battle.
0:30:14 > 0:30:15The first batches of prisoners were
0:30:15 > 0:30:18so anxious to reach the shelter of our trenches that,
0:30:18 > 0:30:21meeting our reinforcing lines coming forward,
0:30:21 > 0:30:24were bayonetted by them in the heat of the moment.
0:30:25 > 0:30:277.50am.
0:30:27 > 0:30:32German second line captured without much opposition and few casualties.
0:30:32 > 0:30:36But not all Germans had lost the will to fight.
0:30:36 > 0:30:38There they come, the khaki-yellows.
0:30:38 > 0:30:41They are not more than 20 metres in front of our trench,
0:30:41 > 0:30:43but no, boys, we are still alive.
0:30:43 > 0:30:44The moles come out of their holes.
0:30:44 > 0:30:48Machine-gun fire tears holes in their rows.
0:30:50 > 0:30:53"Machine guns opened fire on us from Thiepval village.
0:30:53 > 0:30:58"'Pit! Pit!' The bullets hit the dry earth all around.
0:30:58 > 0:31:01"The shelling onto the wood edge has ceased.
0:31:01 > 0:31:05"The men emerge. "Now is the chance", I think to myself.
0:31:05 > 0:31:09"They must quicken pace and get diagonally across
0:31:09 > 0:31:10"to the sunken road,
0:31:10 > 0:31:14"disengaging from each other quickly, company by company."
0:31:14 > 0:31:16RIFLE FIRE
0:31:16 > 0:31:18There they are, my team.
0:31:18 > 0:31:21Given beans, standing and kneeling, they are sending death
0:31:21 > 0:31:23and injury into the dense marching wall
0:31:23 > 0:31:25and the peasouper fume ahead of us.
0:31:25 > 0:31:28Our infantry fire is raging.
0:31:28 > 0:31:31It is casting a fine mesh net over no-man's-land
0:31:31 > 0:31:33that strangles anything alive.
0:31:34 > 0:31:36"Something had gone wrong.
0:31:38 > 0:31:40"When the fumes lifted,
0:31:40 > 0:31:42"we saw what it was.
0:31:42 > 0:31:43"A couple of battalions wiped out.
0:31:45 > 0:31:50"Masses of dead and dying instead of ranks moving steadily forward."
0:31:52 > 0:31:56"This spirited dash across no-man's-land, carried out
0:31:56 > 0:31:58"as if on parade, has cost us
0:31:58 > 0:32:01"some 50 dead and 70 disabled.
0:32:02 > 0:32:05"The dead no longer count.
0:32:05 > 0:32:11"War has no use for dead men. With luck, they will be buried later.
0:32:11 > 0:32:14"The wounded try to crawl back to our lines.
0:32:14 > 0:32:20"Some are hit again in so doing, but the majority lie out all day -
0:32:20 > 0:32:24"sunbaked, parched, uncared for,
0:32:24 > 0:32:28"often delirious, and at any rate, in great pain."
0:32:31 > 0:32:35In the German trenches, fierce hand-to-hand fighting ensued.
0:32:37 > 0:32:39A bunch of Jerries just across from us.
0:32:39 > 0:32:41We couldn't shoot them, for our rifles was jammed,
0:32:41 > 0:32:43and they couldn't get us,
0:32:43 > 0:32:47so we threw a couple of Mills bombs over and that was the end of them.
0:32:51 > 0:32:52EXPLOSION
0:32:53 > 0:32:57A 9th Inniskilling has got a bullet through his steel hat.
0:32:57 > 0:32:59His brain is oozing out of the side of his head
0:32:59 > 0:33:01and he's calling for his pal.
0:33:01 > 0:33:04"Billy Gray, Billy Gray, will you not come to me?"
0:33:04 > 0:33:06In a short time, all is quiet. He's dead.
0:33:07 > 0:33:11Somebody got me on the leg, so I made for him, a German,
0:33:11 > 0:33:13and I got him, shot him in the face.
0:33:13 > 0:33:17Then I tried to walk back and I couldn't. I had been shot.
0:33:20 > 0:33:22County Down volunteer captain Jim Davidson
0:33:22 > 0:33:27and his machine gun section were in the second line of German trenches.
0:33:29 > 0:33:31The second line has lots of bunkers on it.
0:33:31 > 0:33:37This is one that is still exposed and has survived reasonably intact.
0:33:37 > 0:33:40There is a very large room in there, and there are rooms
0:33:40 > 0:33:45off to the right and the left, and tunnels leading right and left.
0:33:45 > 0:33:50We know that the soldiers got to the C Line further back from here
0:33:50 > 0:33:53early in the day, so why was Jim back here
0:33:53 > 0:33:55at the trenches later in the day?
0:33:55 > 0:33:57Very, very easy to explain.
0:33:57 > 0:34:02The first waves out didn't properly clear a lot of the bunkers.
0:34:02 > 0:34:07So Jim is probably involved in what we would term as "mopping up".
0:34:07 > 0:34:11Well, I found a newspaper clipping, and in it a young soldier
0:34:11 > 0:34:15is describing going into the German trenches to do this mopping up.
0:34:15 > 0:34:18He says, "In one of these dugouts, Captain Davidson
0:34:18 > 0:34:23"and I found a big Prussian officer and about half a dozen soldiers.
0:34:23 > 0:34:25"The captain, who was carrying a bayonet
0:34:25 > 0:34:28"he had picked up during the advance,
0:34:28 > 0:34:29"called on them to surrender,
0:34:29 > 0:34:32"and the soldiers, seeing that I carried a supply of bombs,
0:34:32 > 0:34:35"one of which I had ready for throwing,
0:34:35 > 0:34:37"promptly held up their hands.
0:34:37 > 0:34:39"But the big officer was made of different stuff.
0:34:39 > 0:34:41"Raising his automatic pistol,
0:34:41 > 0:34:44"he fired point-blank at the captain,
0:34:44 > 0:34:46"who immediately closed with him,
0:34:46 > 0:34:50"and knocking up his pistol, drove the bayonet into his neck.
0:34:50 > 0:34:53"The Prussian staggered back but continued to fire,
0:34:53 > 0:34:58"although Captain Davidson stabbed him repeatedly until he fell dead."
0:34:58 > 0:35:02So when I first found this newspaper article, I just didn't believe it.
0:35:02 > 0:35:05Because it was in accounts, from a little bit later,
0:35:05 > 0:35:06only a few months later,
0:35:06 > 0:35:10and it just seemed like something out of Boy's Own magazine.
0:35:10 > 0:35:14Derring-do and stabbing the Hun and that sort of thing.
0:35:14 > 0:35:16But I wonder if there was some truth in it.
0:35:16 > 0:35:19How credible do you think this account is?
0:35:19 > 0:35:22Is it realistic that these things actually happened in that way?
0:35:22 > 0:35:25It is an eyewitness account, a very, very detailed eyewitness account,
0:35:25 > 0:35:29I think it is very credible, because he is here as a leader of his men.
0:35:29 > 0:35:33- Yes.- His men are there, they are watching what he's doing.
0:35:33 > 0:35:37Extraordinary situations are going to make people do
0:35:37 > 0:35:41extraordinary things, and he stepped up to the plate here
0:35:41 > 0:35:44and done exactly what he was here for.
0:35:44 > 0:35:49I find this amazing, because I grew up seeing pictures of him
0:35:49 > 0:35:52around at my grandparents' house, playing in his uniform,
0:35:52 > 0:35:57putting on his boots and his hat and some of the souvenirs
0:35:57 > 0:36:00he had taken home, from the Germans as well.
0:36:00 > 0:36:04To think that he has fought up here, this is where he was,
0:36:04 > 0:36:10this potentially down here was the dugout which...that happened.
0:36:10 > 0:36:12It's incredible.
0:36:12 > 0:36:13How do you feel being here?
0:36:13 > 0:36:15JONATHAN LAUGHS
0:36:15 > 0:36:19- I don't know. It sends a shiver up the spine, doesn't it?- Yeah. Yeah.
0:36:19 > 0:36:21I can imagine.
0:36:21 > 0:36:26To actually be here, to finally be here, that is what it is all about.
0:36:28 > 0:36:30Fighting their way through the German trenches,
0:36:30 > 0:36:35the Ulstermen captured a key German stronghold, the Schwaben Redoubt.
0:36:39 > 0:36:43Only 90 minutes into the attack, some Ulsterman even made it
0:36:43 > 0:36:46to the division's final objective - the D line.
0:36:46 > 0:36:48It looked like the Germans were close to defeat.
0:36:49 > 0:36:54Our company was encircled and the situation was extremely critical.
0:36:54 > 0:36:57A few survivors from the company on our right joined us.
0:36:57 > 0:36:59They had given everything up for lost.
0:36:59 > 0:37:04They had also made many of us lose all hope and fighting spirit.
0:37:06 > 0:37:09But the British divisions on either side did not keep up,
0:37:09 > 0:37:14leaving the Ulstermen exposed to enemy fire from their flanks.
0:37:18 > 0:37:21At midday, the Germans launch counterattacks
0:37:21 > 0:37:23supported by their artillery.
0:37:24 > 0:37:27I have walked right into where the counterattack is coming,
0:37:27 > 0:37:29we are in a deathtrap.
0:37:29 > 0:37:31A man is pushed up to the parapet to spot events
0:37:31 > 0:37:33and rolls back into the trench again.
0:37:33 > 0:37:36He is absolutely peppered with shrapnel.
0:37:37 > 0:37:42All of a sudden we were caught by a heavy barrage of 5.9 inch shells.
0:37:42 > 0:37:46The one that wounded me killed or wounded about six others.
0:37:46 > 0:37:49A wee chap was buried up to his mouth by the shell.
0:37:49 > 0:37:51I dug like mad to try and get him out.
0:37:51 > 0:37:55The whole time his head was moving from side to side,
0:37:55 > 0:37:59and I could hear him repeating the Lord's Prayer over and over again.
0:37:59 > 0:38:02He died before I could dig him out.
0:38:09 > 0:38:10Casualties were mounting.
0:38:13 > 0:38:15- RECORDING:- 'We were carrying stretchers
0:38:15 > 0:38:19'for I don't know how many hours without stopping.
0:38:19 > 0:38:23'Up and down, up and down. There was no difference,
0:38:23 > 0:38:25'you just walked up and down
0:38:25 > 0:38:30'sort of in your sleep, you know, half-conscious of what was going on.
0:38:30 > 0:38:33'It was a terrible shambles.'
0:38:33 > 0:38:38- Mmm.- 'We never again had anything like the casualties, so...'
0:38:45 > 0:38:47As the German counterattacks intensified,
0:38:47 > 0:38:50some Ulstermen lost the will to fight.
0:38:52 > 0:38:55"At that moment, a strong rabble of
0:38:55 > 0:38:58"tired, hungry and thirsty stragglers
0:38:58 > 0:39:00"approached me from the east.
0:39:00 > 0:39:05"I go out to meet them. 'Where are you going?', I ask
0:39:05 > 0:39:08"One says one thing, one another.
0:39:09 > 0:39:12"They are marched to the water reserve, given a drink
0:39:12 > 0:39:15"and hunted back to fight.
0:39:15 > 0:39:19"Another, more formidable, party cuts across to the south.
0:39:19 > 0:39:23"They mean business. They are damned if they are going to stay.
0:39:24 > 0:39:29"It's all up. A young, sprinting subaltern heads them off.
0:39:30 > 0:39:35"They push by him. He draws his revolver and threatens them.
0:39:35 > 0:39:39"They take no notice. He fires.
0:39:39 > 0:39:43"Down drops a British soldier at his feet.
0:39:43 > 0:39:46"The effect is instantaneous.
0:39:46 > 0:39:50"They turn back to the assistance of their comrades in distress."
0:39:53 > 0:39:56I can't imagine being in the position of the person
0:39:56 > 0:39:58having to do that shooting.
0:40:00 > 0:40:04And obviously that was his duty at that time.
0:40:04 > 0:40:07I guess it's the...
0:40:07 > 0:40:11It's the discipline of war at that time
0:40:11 > 0:40:15that, in order to hold the line,
0:40:15 > 0:40:20if he didn't do it, then how many more would follow?
0:40:20 > 0:40:23It must have just been so, so, so terrifying,
0:40:23 > 0:40:27I mean, to know that you were basically facing death
0:40:27 > 0:40:30- on both sides. You didn't have... - Both sides.- Yeah.
0:40:30 > 0:40:32- Would you rather be... - Killed by your own?
0:40:32 > 0:40:37- Yes, with dishonour, or...- That's true.- ..by the enemy, with honour.
0:40:37 > 0:40:39Question is, I mean...
0:40:41 > 0:40:44Your grandfather, my grandfather, we're here...
0:40:46 > 0:40:48If you turn the cards around,
0:40:48 > 0:40:51would you be prepared to do the same thing that they did?
0:40:53 > 0:40:55Probably not.
0:40:55 > 0:40:59- We grew up in different times. - Yeah.- Yeah.
0:41:01 > 0:41:06"At 12.40, Jim sends a message to headquarters where he says,
0:41:06 > 0:41:09"'I am holding the end of a communication trench in A line
0:41:09 > 0:41:14"'with a few bombers and a Lewis gun. We cannot hold much longer.
0:41:14 > 0:41:19"'We are being pressed on all sides and ammunition almost finished.'"
0:41:20 > 0:41:24Machine-gun Captain Jim Davidson held out in the German trenches,
0:41:24 > 0:41:28even though he'd lost most of his men and was shot through the knee.
0:41:30 > 0:41:34But when neither reinforcements nor stretcher-bearers arrived,
0:41:34 > 0:41:37Jim decided to try and make it back to the British lines.
0:41:39 > 0:41:42"We got to the German front-line trench and went down the trench
0:41:42 > 0:41:45"about 200 yards to get as much dead ground as possible.
0:41:45 > 0:41:46"I tucked the parapet
0:41:46 > 0:41:49"and helped the captain up, and had just got through the wire when
0:41:49 > 0:41:53"I noticed about a dozen men on my left, a few yards up, retiring.
0:41:53 > 0:41:56"Just then, the Germans opened up deadly machine-gun
0:41:56 > 0:41:58"and rifle fire on us.
0:41:58 > 0:42:01"We'd just got 20 yards from the wire
0:42:01 > 0:42:03"when the captain got shot through the head.
0:42:03 > 0:42:09"He just fell and never spoke, nor moved. He died instantly.
0:42:09 > 0:42:10"There was no hope."
0:42:12 > 0:42:18For 500 yards in total, he has spent the entire day
0:42:18 > 0:42:20- being incredibly heroic.- Yeah.
0:42:20 > 0:42:22Fighting back and fighting back
0:42:22 > 0:42:24and even to the point where he was injured
0:42:24 > 0:42:26and refused to leave his post
0:42:26 > 0:42:27- initially...- Yeah.
0:42:27 > 0:42:32And then having left his post, trying to make it back,
0:42:32 > 0:42:37- he was shot in the head.- Yeah. - And so near to safety.
0:42:37 > 0:42:42- So near to safety.- It makes you incredibly proud to think that...
0:42:42 > 0:42:46that this is true, and his men respected him
0:42:46 > 0:42:49and his men fought with him and his men followed him.
0:42:49 > 0:42:53I think everyone who came and served here made that sacrifice,
0:42:53 > 0:42:55and getting to know just one person
0:42:55 > 0:42:58and how much that meant to our family,
0:42:58 > 0:43:02what a sacrifice that was for us, how much was lost,
0:43:02 > 0:43:07both in business terms, in personal terms,
0:43:07 > 0:43:12and that is still having an impact on our families' lives, and
0:43:12 > 0:43:16you multiply that by all the people who gave their lives at this place.
0:43:16 > 0:43:18I suppose we're incredibly fortunate,
0:43:18 > 0:43:24because of Jim's background and because of the wealth of his family
0:43:24 > 0:43:26and because of his prominence and so on,
0:43:26 > 0:43:29there is an extraordinary amount of information,
0:43:29 > 0:43:32- and how many... - He was well documented.- Yeah.
0:43:32 > 0:43:34How many families don't have that?
0:43:42 > 0:43:44EXPLOSION
0:43:44 > 0:43:48Again and again, the Ulster Division sent requests for reinforcements,
0:43:48 > 0:43:50but these arrived far too late.
0:43:52 > 0:43:56By nightfall, those Ulstermen still holding out in the German lines
0:43:56 > 0:44:00were overwhelmed by an all-out attack by fresh German troops.
0:44:02 > 0:44:06By the following day, the Germans had retaken all their positions.
0:44:10 > 0:44:14The Ulster Division suffered more than 5,000 casualties
0:44:14 > 0:44:16with over 2,000 dead,
0:44:16 > 0:44:20but no other British unit on the first day of the Somme managed
0:44:20 > 0:44:23to break as far into the German lines as General Nugent's men.
0:44:25 > 0:44:30"My dearest, the Ulster Division has been too superb for words.
0:44:30 > 0:44:33"The whole army is talking of the incomparable gallantry
0:44:33 > 0:44:35"shown by officers and men.
0:44:35 > 0:44:38"The Ulster Division has proved itself
0:44:38 > 0:44:40"and it has indeed borne itself like men.
0:44:42 > 0:44:47"I can't describe to you what I feel about them. I didn't believe...
0:44:49 > 0:44:52"..men were made who could do such gallant work
0:44:52 > 0:44:55"under the conditions of modern war."
0:45:01 > 0:45:06It's so touching. They were his military family, weren't they?
0:45:06 > 0:45:08He sees the casualties,
0:45:08 > 0:45:13over 5,000 of his infantry out of 9,000 in the attack have become
0:45:13 > 0:45:16casualties and you see the real emotion in this letter,
0:45:16 > 0:45:20when he thinks of the losses, and also the achievement
0:45:20 > 0:45:23because it genuinely was an extraordinary achievement.
0:45:26 > 0:45:27All those young men.
0:45:35 > 0:45:39It took several days before news of the human cost of the battle
0:45:39 > 0:45:41reached families at home in Ireland.
0:45:46 > 0:45:49A sad, sad day.
0:45:49 > 0:45:52Father came home by 11 o'clock train, bringing news that
0:45:52 > 0:45:55our darling Jim had been killed on the 1st,
0:45:55 > 0:45:58doing his duty with gallantry deserving of the VC,
0:45:58 > 0:46:01as Captain Spender wrote father.
0:46:01 > 0:46:04I went at once to darling Eileen,
0:46:04 > 0:46:06and oh, the cruel blow it was to her.
0:46:07 > 0:46:12Can write no more tonight. God help us all to bear this sorrow.
0:46:12 > 0:46:14Our darling, darling Jim.
0:46:19 > 0:46:20The Ulster Memorial Tower
0:46:20 > 0:46:23commemorates the war dead from Ulster.
0:46:23 > 0:46:25It was built in 1921
0:46:25 > 0:46:28on the very site where the Ulster Division fought.
0:46:33 > 0:46:35But only a few miles further east
0:46:35 > 0:46:38is another, much smaller, memorial for soldiers from Ireland.
0:46:40 > 0:46:46# Viva la, for Ireland's wrong Viva la, for Ireland's right... #
0:46:46 > 0:46:49This memorial, in the village of Guillemont,
0:46:49 > 0:46:51commemorates the victories of the mostly Nationalist men
0:46:51 > 0:46:54of the 16th Irish Division won on the Somme.
0:46:59 > 0:47:02The 1st of July was only the first day of an offensive
0:47:02 > 0:47:05that would last close to five months.
0:47:05 > 0:47:09During this time, the British and French advanced just over six miles,
0:47:09 > 0:47:12at a cost of more than a million soldiers
0:47:12 > 0:47:14killed or wounded on both sides.
0:47:14 > 0:47:17# Viva la, the rose shall fade... #
0:47:17 > 0:47:22In early September 1916, men of the 16th Irish Division attacked
0:47:22 > 0:47:26the fiercely contested German strongpoint of Guillemont.
0:47:26 > 0:47:29Among them was Eddie Friel's grandfather.
0:47:31 > 0:47:32"On the minute of 12,
0:47:32 > 0:47:36"the major gave the word, 'Come on, the Royal Irish',
0:47:36 > 0:47:40"and every man jumped over the parapet with a cheer. It was grand
0:47:40 > 0:47:42"to see our brave boys advancing
0:47:42 > 0:47:46"with the shells bursting around them in all directions.
0:47:46 > 0:47:49"They were falling, but they never wavered.
0:47:49 > 0:47:53"They had 3,000 yards to advance to take Guillemont.
0:47:53 > 0:47:55"Before our wings were right up,
0:47:55 > 0:47:59"our centre companies were sending the prisoners down in hundreds.
0:47:59 > 0:48:01"I never was as light-hearted in all my life
0:48:01 > 0:48:04"and I never was as proud of my countrymen.
0:48:04 > 0:48:08"Each company had two pipers playing behind them as they advanced.
0:48:08 > 0:48:14"They played A Nation Once Again, '98 and several other tunes.
0:48:14 > 0:48:16"Everyone was so light-hearted
0:48:16 > 0:48:19"that all they wanted was to reach the Germans."
0:48:19 > 0:48:21I...
0:48:21 > 0:48:26I find that paragraph particularly interesting, that...
0:48:26 > 0:48:28Why are you so light-hearted at
0:48:28 > 0:48:34the prospect of coming out into this wide, open expanse to kill people?
0:48:34 > 0:48:37How is it possible to feel light-hearted?
0:48:38 > 0:48:42Well, these men, first and foremost, had become soldiers.
0:48:42 > 0:48:45And their job was to kill.
0:48:45 > 0:48:48That's what they were trained for, it's what they were motivated for.
0:48:48 > 0:48:52They'd been at the front for nine months, eight months,
0:48:52 > 0:48:56this is the start of September. They knew that the Ulster Division
0:48:56 > 0:49:00and the men from the Fountain in Derry and that, who were the UVF,
0:49:00 > 0:49:02had already made a name for themselves
0:49:02 > 0:49:05and retaken the Schwaben Redoubt on July 1st,
0:49:05 > 0:49:07which was just weeks before.
0:49:07 > 0:49:09So there was a competitive element to begin with.
0:49:09 > 0:49:12Now your chance to prove, how good are you?
0:49:12 > 0:49:14- Like going into the boxing ring. - Sure.
0:49:14 > 0:49:18# Viva la, for Ireland's right... #
0:49:18 > 0:49:21The Irishmen won a resounding victory at Guillemont.
0:49:21 > 0:49:23It earned them a special mention
0:49:23 > 0:49:27by the commander of the British forces in France, General Haig.
0:49:27 > 0:49:31The Irish regiments participating in the capture of Guillemont
0:49:31 > 0:49:34on Sunday behaved with the greatest dash and gallantry,
0:49:34 > 0:49:39and took no small share in the success achieved.
0:49:43 > 0:49:46Haig's praise was of particular significance.
0:49:46 > 0:49:48The Easter Rising had cast doubt
0:49:48 > 0:49:50on the loyalties of Catholic Irish troops.
0:49:50 > 0:49:53The executions of the leaders of the rebellion
0:49:53 > 0:49:56had shifted public opinion in large parts of Ireland
0:49:56 > 0:49:58in favour of the rebels and their cause.
0:50:01 > 0:50:05Tom Kettle, the company commander with the Royal Dublin Fusiliers
0:50:05 > 0:50:07expressed what many Irish soldiers felt.
0:50:08 > 0:50:11"These men will go down in history as heroes and martyrs.
0:50:11 > 0:50:16"And I will go down, if I go down at all, as a bloody British officer."
0:50:17 > 0:50:20Tom Kettle was a former Nationalist MP
0:50:20 > 0:50:21and well-known journalist.
0:50:21 > 0:50:23Like Edward Friel,
0:50:23 > 0:50:27he left his family to fight in the 16th Irish Division.
0:50:27 > 0:50:29He was given the option
0:50:29 > 0:50:31of taking an administrative role
0:50:31 > 0:50:33and he decided, no, he'd stay and, as he called them,
0:50:33 > 0:50:36he'd stay with his "beloved Fusiliers".
0:50:36 > 0:50:38So he had a loyalty to his men.
0:50:38 > 0:50:40What about his family, then, like?
0:50:40 > 0:50:42What was his...?
0:50:42 > 0:50:44- That's a very good point, Mark. - It's a very good point.
0:50:44 > 0:50:49He made a choice between his family or the men he was with.
0:50:49 > 0:50:53- Yeah.- You know, that's a vital point, Mark, I think,
0:50:53 > 0:50:55that this man had a choice.
0:50:55 > 0:50:58- Was it his little baby Betty back in Dublin...- Yeah.
0:50:58 > 0:51:01..or was it his Dublin Fusiliers back in France?
0:51:04 > 0:51:06In a trench in this field near the village of Guillemont,
0:51:06 > 0:51:09Tom Kettle wrote a poem to explain to his daughter
0:51:09 > 0:51:11the choice he had made.
0:51:15 > 0:51:17"In wiser days, my darling rosebud, blown
0:51:17 > 0:51:21"To beauty proud as was your mother's prime.
0:51:21 > 0:51:23"In that desired, delayed, incredible time
0:51:23 > 0:51:26"You'll ask why I abandoned you, my own
0:51:26 > 0:51:29"And the dear heart that was your baby's throne
0:51:29 > 0:51:33"To dice with death and, oh, they'll give you rhyme and reason.
0:51:33 > 0:51:36"Some will call the thing sublime
0:51:36 > 0:51:38"And some decry it in a knowing tone.
0:51:40 > 0:51:43"So here, while the mad guns curse overhead
0:51:43 > 0:51:47"And tired men sigh with mud for couch and floor
0:51:47 > 0:51:51"Know that we fools, now with the foolish dead
0:51:51 > 0:51:54"Died not for flag, nor King, nor Emperor
0:51:54 > 0:51:58"But for a dream, born in a herdsmen's shed
0:51:58 > 0:52:01"And for the secret Scripture of the poor."
0:52:08 > 0:52:11A few days after Tom wrote his poem for his daughter Betty,
0:52:11 > 0:52:13the 16th Irish Division took part in an attack
0:52:13 > 0:52:16on the ruins of this village - Ginchy.
0:52:21 > 0:52:24Ginchy is only 1,000 yards from Guillemont,
0:52:24 > 0:52:27the German strong point that the Irish had just captured.
0:52:29 > 0:52:32As troops were moved to the Ginchy front line,
0:52:32 > 0:52:35Father Willie Doyle was amongst those crossing the battlefield
0:52:35 > 0:52:37of a few days earlier.
0:52:41 > 0:52:45"The wounded, at least I hope so, had all been removed.
0:52:45 > 0:52:49"But the dead lay there stiff and stark with open, staring eyes,
0:52:49 > 0:52:51"just as they had fallen.
0:52:51 > 0:52:53"Good God, such a sight!
0:52:54 > 0:52:56"I had try to prepare myself for this,
0:52:56 > 0:52:59"but all I had read or pictured gave me little idea of the reality.
0:53:01 > 0:53:03"Some lay as if they were sleeping quietly,
0:53:03 > 0:53:05"others had died in agony
0:53:05 > 0:53:09"or had had the life crushed out of them by mortal fear.
0:53:09 > 0:53:12"In the bottom of one hole lay a British and a German soldier,
0:53:12 > 0:53:14"locked in a deadly embrace.
0:53:14 > 0:53:16"Neither had any weapon,
0:53:16 > 0:53:19"but they had fought on to the bitter end.
0:53:20 > 0:53:22"Another couple seemed to have realised
0:53:22 > 0:53:25"that their horrible struggle was none of their making
0:53:25 > 0:53:27"and that they were both children of the same god.
0:53:27 > 0:53:32"They had died hand in hand, praying for and forgiving one another.
0:53:35 > 0:53:37"A third face crossed my eye -
0:53:37 > 0:53:39"a tall, strikingly handsome young German,
0:53:39 > 0:53:42"not more I should say than 18.
0:53:42 > 0:53:44"He lay there calm and peaceful,
0:53:44 > 0:53:45"with a smile of happiness on his face,
0:53:45 > 0:53:48"as if he had a glimpse of heaven before he died.
0:53:48 > 0:53:51"Ah, if only his poor mother could have seen her boy,
0:53:51 > 0:53:54"it would have soothed the pain of her broken heart."
0:54:07 > 0:54:09In the afternoon of the 9th September,
0:54:09 > 0:54:11the Irish attacked over these fields.
0:54:12 > 0:54:15Suffering from heavy losses from shellfire,
0:54:15 > 0:54:19they fought their way through to the ruins of Ginchy.
0:54:20 > 0:54:23"All units were mixed up, but they were all Irishmen.
0:54:23 > 0:54:27"They were cheering and cheering and cheering like mad.
0:54:27 > 0:54:28"It was hell let loose.
0:54:31 > 0:54:35"There was a machinegun playing on us nearby and we all made for it.
0:54:35 > 0:54:38"At this moment, we caught our first sight of the Huns.
0:54:38 > 0:54:39"Some of them had their hands up,
0:54:39 > 0:54:42"others were kneeling and holding their arms out to us.
0:54:42 > 0:54:45"To the everlasting good name of the Irish soldiery,
0:54:45 > 0:54:46"not one of these Huns,
0:54:46 > 0:54:49"some of whom had been engaged in slaughtering our men
0:54:49 > 0:54:52"up to the very last moment, was killed.
0:54:52 > 0:54:53"I did not see a single instance
0:54:53 > 0:54:56"of a prisoner being shot or bayoneted.
0:54:56 > 0:54:57"When you remember that our men
0:54:57 > 0:55:00"were now worked up to a frenzy of excitement,
0:55:00 > 0:55:02"this crowning act of mercy to their foes
0:55:02 > 0:55:04"is surely to their eternal credit.
0:55:04 > 0:55:07"They could feel pity, even in their rage."
0:55:10 > 0:55:14The 16th Irish Division succeeded in capturing Ginchy,
0:55:14 > 0:55:15but at a terrible cost.
0:55:16 > 0:55:20Half of the attacking force were either killed or wounded.
0:55:21 > 0:55:23Among the dead was Tom Kettle.
0:55:30 > 0:55:33Edward Friel, too, was killed at Ginchy.
0:55:35 > 0:55:39He is one of the 756 Derry men who died in the Great War
0:55:39 > 0:55:43and are commemorated on Derry's Diamond War Memorial.
0:55:45 > 0:55:48Half of the names on the memorial are from the Protestant community.
0:55:48 > 0:55:51The other half were Catholics, like Edward Friel.
0:55:59 > 0:56:01BUGLER PLAYS THE LAST POST
0:56:02 > 0:56:05But the war dead were commemorated very differently
0:56:05 > 0:56:06in the two communities.
0:56:08 > 0:56:11Again, we record our feelings of gratitude to the brave men
0:56:11 > 0:56:13of the 36th Ulster Division
0:56:13 > 0:56:16who, by their glorious conduct in that battle,
0:56:16 > 0:56:20made an imperishable name for themselves and our province
0:56:20 > 0:56:22and whose heroism will never be forgotten
0:56:22 > 0:56:25so long as the British Commonwealth lasts.
0:56:26 > 0:56:28The sacrifice of the Ulster Division on the Somme
0:56:28 > 0:56:31became a defining event for Northern Irish identity
0:56:31 > 0:56:36and is still remembered with great pride in the Unionist community.
0:56:38 > 0:56:40In the Republic, it took decades
0:56:40 > 0:56:43before Irish soldiers of the First World War
0:56:43 > 0:56:44received proper recognition.
0:56:47 > 0:56:50- TV REPORTER:- Pipers from the Irish Army and the Royal Irish Regiment
0:56:50 > 0:56:53played as Queen Elizabeth, Mary McAleese and King Albert
0:56:53 > 0:56:55approached the tower,
0:56:55 > 0:56:57which was officially inaugurated by the Irish president.
0:56:57 > 0:57:01An important step was the opening of a cross-border memorial in Belgium -
0:57:01 > 0:57:05the Island of Ireland Round Tower and Peace Park in 1998.
0:57:10 > 0:57:13Republicans in the North have also begun to honour the war dead.
0:57:14 > 0:57:18In 2002, Belfast's first Sinn Fein Lord Mayor
0:57:18 > 0:57:20was the first Republican to lay a wreath
0:57:20 > 0:57:23at the cenotaph at Belfast City Hall.
0:57:27 > 0:57:29100 years after the Battle of the Somme,
0:57:29 > 0:57:32political divisions have made way to the recognition
0:57:32 > 0:57:35that German shells and bullets didn't discriminate
0:57:35 > 0:57:37between Nationalists and Unionists.
0:57:37 > 0:57:38They just killed.
0:57:45 > 0:57:47I was thinking earlier of Granny.
0:57:47 > 0:57:51Our granny, who was five months old when he had his last visit home.
0:57:51 > 0:57:53- This tiny little baby.- Yeah.
0:57:53 > 0:57:55I think, if Granny were around,
0:57:55 > 0:57:59she'd be incredibly moved that we've been here and we've seen it.
0:57:59 > 0:58:02And...her uncle,
0:58:02 > 0:58:04- that she got to meet once...- Mm-hm.
0:58:06 > 0:58:07..we're remembering him.
0:58:07 > 0:58:08And there's a legacy.
0:58:08 > 0:58:10- And that is being passed on.- Mm.
0:58:10 > 0:58:13- My middle name is James...- Mm-hm.
0:58:13 > 0:58:14- ..after him.- Yeah.
0:58:14 > 0:58:16And my dad's middle name is James.
0:58:16 > 0:58:19- And my son's middle name is James. - Well, there you are.
0:58:19 > 0:58:23And, I mean, when I talk to my son, as he gets older,
0:58:23 > 0:58:26and he sees the picture we have of him in our house,
0:58:26 > 0:58:28there'll be more realism and he'll know.
0:58:28 > 0:58:32And he'll know the courage of, er...
0:58:32 > 0:58:34A member of the family.
0:58:34 > 0:58:38..of Uncle Jim, I suppose, in what he had to go through.