A GROUP of Irish boys were last night returning home from a most unusual transition year project - a re-enactment of trench warfare in Flanders.
The 10 boys - five from Belvedere College in Dublin and five from Banbridge Academy in Co Down - took part in the project at Bayernwald, Belgium, along with 10 Belgian boys from the Huize Godtschalck residential institution, a Flemish government-funded accommodation centre for young people forced to leave home because of threats to their welfare.
The boys spent Monday night on sentry duty in the trenches, under bucketing rain, in replica woollen uniforms, carrying replica rifles and with little to eat but first World War rations of tinned corned beef and dry bread.
Among them was Cian O'Connell (16) from Belvedere College. "We got kitted out with everything the soldiers then would have had, though our load wasn't as heavy. Ours was 20lbs. The soldiers back then had 50lbs.
"Then we had a 15km walk to get to the trenches. That took about four hours. We were pretty tired once we got there. We had got a little cooker each with tiny firelighters which didn't last long so you'd only get one meal."
Cian was on guard duty for two hours, patrolling the trenches. "Towards the end of my duty, it started to rain really heavily and then I went into the bunker to try and get some sleep. It was very smoky and, after 10pm, the only lights were the fires outside. It was very realistic.
"You really don't understand what it was like until you do something like this. And we were doing it just one night. Can you imagine doing it day after day for years?" he said.
Oliver Murphy, maths teacher and historian at Belvedere College, said the project was instigated by the Huize Godtschalck institution. "They wanted five boys from a Catholic tradition and five from a unionist to 'fight' alongside 10 Belgian boys, much as happened in the first World War."
Some 47 Belvedere past pupils and two Jesuit priests who worked as army chaplains died in the war.
