0:10:33 > 0:10:37# It's a long way to Tipperary
0:10:37 > 0:10:42# It's a long way to go... #
0:14:02 > 0:14:04People were devastated when war broke out in Belgium.
0:14:04 > 0:14:07We were a neutral country, like Ireland,
0:14:07 > 0:14:09did not expect to get involved in all of this,
0:14:09 > 0:14:12and within weeks, thousands of innocent civilians
0:14:12 > 0:14:15had lost their lives, murdered by the German army.
0:14:15 > 0:14:17People were shocked, to say the least.
0:14:17 > 0:14:19Towns were destroyed, houses were destroyed.
0:14:19 > 0:14:21Thousands of innocent people had to leave their homes.
0:16:22 > 0:16:25No stretch of the imagination can give an adequate idea
0:16:25 > 0:16:30of the disfiguring havoc that modern warfare entails.
0:16:30 > 0:16:34The whole country along the line of fire, either side of the trenches,
0:16:34 > 0:16:36is a veritable desert.
0:16:36 > 0:16:39The pen picture of the writer will likely mislead,
0:16:39 > 0:16:42and the stony image of the camera,
0:16:42 > 0:16:44though more faithful to the reality,
0:16:44 > 0:16:47is too small and even too calm and dead
0:16:47 > 0:16:51to exhibit the speaking wounds of a butchered country.
0:17:03 > 0:17:08Shell holes of fabulous sizes confront one on all sides.
0:17:08 > 0:17:11In many cases, these are 12 or 15 feet deep.
0:17:13 > 0:17:16Alas, broken and bleeding France.
0:29:30 > 0:29:35Over no-man's-land seems to hang the veil that divides time from eternity,
0:29:35 > 0:29:38like waves beating one after the other
0:29:38 > 0:29:42against the rock-bound coast of Donegal.
0:29:42 > 0:29:46Wave after wave of human beings rush against a stubborn foe.
0:29:48 > 0:29:53The push is like the rising, swelling tide into the enemy lines.
0:29:53 > 0:29:55Often the waves are dashed aside
0:29:55 > 0:29:59and seem to fall like breakers on a sandy beach.
0:29:59 > 0:30:03It is the life's blood of strong, energetic manhood
0:30:03 > 0:30:07mingling with the white, chalky clay of the trenches.
0:30:07 > 0:30:11Who can go over there, so dangerously near the veil,
0:30:11 > 0:30:14and not prepare his soul?
0:34:03 > 0:34:09He was badly injured - he was gassed, along with being shot.
0:34:09 > 0:34:11So he laid there for a while before...
0:34:11 > 0:34:14He must have been there for a couple of days,
0:34:14 > 0:34:16or I don't know how long he was there,
0:34:16 > 0:34:18and they found him.
0:35:32 > 0:35:38The telephone lines were left opened night and day during the war
0:35:38 > 0:35:43for messages coming. The telegrams, when they would come,
0:35:43 > 0:35:46that they were dead.
0:43:49 > 0:43:51On the one hand, we were in our right, defending ourselves,
0:43:51 > 0:43:54and we're very grateful for all the other Allied countries
0:43:54 > 0:43:57to come to our help, really, including Ireland.
0:43:57 > 0:44:03But on the other hand, how can you justify this...mass murder, really?
0:44:03 > 0:44:07The Great War of Civilisation, which was written on the back
0:44:07 > 0:44:10of the medals, is a very hard fact to believe in these days -
0:44:10 > 0:44:13killing thousands and thousands - millions of people.
0:44:13 > 0:44:16Can you call that civilisation, really?
0:44:16 > 0:44:18So in the long run, especially these days,
0:44:18 > 0:44:21there's quite a different view towards the war
0:44:21 > 0:44:22in these parts of the world.
0:44:22 > 0:44:24Belgium knows what war is like.
0:44:24 > 0:44:28We're still a very neutral country. We've seen enough war, we say.
0:48:22 > 0:48:24His friends all fell and he said
0:48:24 > 0:48:27that he thought it was good for them
0:48:27 > 0:48:32because they were dead, and he said that it was good for them, he said,
0:48:32 > 0:48:35because it was over for them.
0:53:43 > 0:53:45You know, he loved every spare moment
0:53:45 > 0:53:47that he could get to come to Fanad.
0:53:47 > 0:53:51And the time was available because teaching in St Eunan's,
0:53:51 > 0:53:52being president at St Eunan's,
0:53:52 > 0:53:56he could arrange to spend his summers in Fanad.
0:53:56 > 0:53:59He just loved being there - you can imagine the peace
0:53:59 > 0:54:03that was in the place - having witnessed so much in the war.
0:54:03 > 0:54:06I remember when I was a very small boy, going to the shore.
0:54:06 > 0:54:09Now, the shore is only about half a mile from the house in Fanad.
0:54:09 > 0:54:12I used to toddle after him, collecting shells and that,
0:54:12 > 0:54:15while he was reading his breviary.
0:54:15 > 0:54:19And I remember him as a very kind, gentle man, and that was the opinion
0:54:19 > 0:54:22of the neighbourhood in general, that he was a very easy-going man.
0:56:06 > 0:56:11The brass clock that Father Mac Giolla Cheara gave my mother -
0:56:11 > 0:56:15his niece - was a present from the men he looked after,
0:56:15 > 0:56:18well, some of the men who were left, who he looked after.
0:56:18 > 0:56:22And I think it was tradition at the time that they usually give a gift
0:56:22 > 0:56:23to their clergyman or priest,
0:56:23 > 0:56:26who would have helped them in their hour of need.
0:56:26 > 0:56:30And the story going on the clock was that, being a brass clock,
0:56:30 > 0:56:33it had been made from a shell, an unused shell.
0:56:33 > 0:56:35So it was treasured by my mother,
0:56:35 > 0:56:40who kept it to the end, and she passed it on to me.