France: Nothing, of course, could equal the brutal, horrible shock of German machine gun fire mowing down 60,000 young men in a single morning. But the 90th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme was filled with extraordinary surprises.
In the intervening years, who would have imagined that the band of the British army's Royal Irish Regiment would break into Amhrán na bhFiann. Or that Eileen Paisley, the wife of the unionist leader, would wear a bright green dress, explaining: "Green is my favourite colour. It must be the Irish in me." For all the goodwill and reconciliation, there were underlying tensions: hurt feelings when Prince Charles forgot to include Ireland in the list of countries he thanked for their part in the Battle of the Somme; an Irishwoman who complained to me that the ceremony at Ulster Tower "resembled an Orange march".
That morning, 90 years ago, was the beginning of the end of the British Empire, and it started with the song of a lark, described by the poet Siegfried Sassoon, who was there. Birdsong accompanied us throughout the day-long tangle of identity and remembering, goodwill and residual distrust.
At the trench in Thiepval Wood, the birds nearly drowned out the trumpeter who played the Last Post, and the piper who played the Lament. The British government gave the Somme Association €578,000 (£400,000) to purchase the wood, when it was threatened by a French plan for an airport. The Royal Irish Regiment recently restored one trench to what it would have looked like in 1916.
Minister for Education Mary Hanafin became the first Government Minister to attend the Somme commemoration. A small ceremony beside the trench in Thiepval Wood brought home the reality of the war for her. A former history teacher, she stood before the gaping scar of the trench.
"Teaching about the first World War using textbooks and maps is quite different to being here," she said. "You look at these beautiful green fields, yellow flowers, poppies . . . You hear birds singing . . . and by noon, 20,000 people were dead."
Ms Hanafin and Northern Secretary Peter Hain saw Ireland's participation in the commemorations as an auspicious omen for the North. Ms Hanafin acknowledged that Ireland long neglected those who died in the first World War. "For the Irish people to commemorate that is hugely significant. It shows the improved relations between North and South, and between England and Ireland," she said.
"It's not so much that we are interested in history for the sake of remembering, but in history for what we can learn from it, and how we can move forward from it."
Mr Hain said: "Everything like this, which says, 'We respect each other,' makes a big step forward in the healing process," he said. "In the end, what we share in common here on the fields of the Somme is immensely much more than what divides us. Irishmen from the south and Ulstermen from the north went over the top and got mown down, or somehow fought their way through to the German trenches and conquered them . . ." But afterwards, they went home and fought each other . . .
"They did," Mr Hain admitted. "And it's that legacy we're now dealing with. Today is an important part of resolving it."
Rev Ian Paisley took credit for Ms Hanafin's presence, claiming it was the result of a speech he gave 10 years ago. It was "only right" that the war dead of Ireland be honoured by their government, he said.
But unlike Ms Hanafin and Mr Hain, he believed the shared remembrance had "nothing to do with the IRA or the government of Ulster". Would Dr Paisley be willing to attend commemorations in Dublin? "If there were proper services, and no trying to infiltrate republicanism or united Ireland," he replied.
Despite the unprecedented recognition of Irish involvement in the Battle of the Somme, the main commemoration, at the 150-foot high Thiepval Memorial, was a decidedly British affair. Britain's ambassador to France, Sir John Holmes, shook hands with many of the 7,000 guests as they arrived. The Union Jack flew overhead and the standards of the Royal British Legion surrounded the red brick monument. The only Irish tricolour I saw was on the Irish Ambassador's car.
Several people fainted, waiting in 35 degree heat for the Prince of Wales to arrive with his wife Camilla. Prince Charles said the Battle of the Somme "caused most profound shock" to Britain. It was not just the huge scale of losses, that 20,000 men died the first day. "It was also the fact that for the first time in our history, we put mere boys into an assault against the bombs, bullets and the terrible wire entanglements," he said.
Nowhere in Britain was left untouched by the Battle of the Somme. Other countries also suffered "unmentionable losses", Prince Charles continued, naming Canada, Australia, New Zealand and India. Asked whether he deliberately left out Ireland, his press secretary assured The Irish Times that the omission was "an oversight".
Three times on Saturday, Ms Hanafin laid wreathes with the words "On behalf of the government and people of Ireland" in English, Irish and French written on the card. They were the same, plain laurel leaves which are used for all official Irish occasions, including memorials to the 1916 Rising.
At Ulster Tower, the third ceremony of the day, one of her south Dublin constituents, Liam Dodd, told Ms Hanafin how thrilled he was to see her. "One of my great uncles, Sgt William Dodd of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, was killed on the 1st of July 1916," Mr Dodd explained. Another great uncle, Patrick Roe, lost a leg.
A storekeeper for Irish lighthouses and an amateur historian of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, Mr Dodd seemed to apologise on behalf of his ancestors. "For a lot of them, the only work they could get was with the British army," he said. "When my uncle Patrick came home, he was afraid of being attacked if he went around Dublin. He hid his medals under the bed. We should remember the men who fought in the first World War, as we remember those from the Rising and the War of Independence. They were all Irishmen together, they should be remembered equally," he said.
The majority of people at the Ulster Tower wore orange sashes or red poppies. Thomas MacGregor Collins, a retired maintenance worker from Belfast and a member of the Apprentice Boys of Derry, told me that "Catholics and Protestants fought alongside each other in the Battle of the Somme." So why did they fight later, I asked.
"The Irish government backed terrorism," Mr Collins said. "To be honest, I don't trust them and I never will." Ms Hanafin was there "to represent the people who died in the Somme, but they were British," he continued. "They died before partition. They were British like us."
A few minutes later, a grey-haired woman slipped a note into my bag, then melted into the crowd before I could speak to her. "I am an Irish Roman Catholic married to a Frenchman and living here for over 30 years," the note said. "I am sad to see this ceremony should resemble an Orange march." But like Irish officials, "E. Prévot", as she signed her letter, praised a sermon by the head of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Rev Dr David Clarke. "We have come to recognise in recent years the unsung heroism of the 16th Irish Division," Dr Clarke said. He also paid tribute to the ceremony in Dublin, adding, "God bless the President and prime minister of the Irish Republic."
The most intimate ceremony took place miles away, in the tiny village of Guillemont, liberated by the 16th Irish Division in September 1916, along with neighbouring Ginchy. It was here that Tom Kettle, poet, MP and Irish nationalist, lost his life. "To the glory of God and the honour of Ireland," says the Celtic stone cross outside the church at Guillemont.
The local French came out in force there. "All of us have an ancestor who fought," Alain Tarlier, the village postman, explained. "We are grateful to the Irish who died here." The village's usual population of 126 swelled. There was not an orange sashto be seen, and Dr Ian Adamson, the chairman of the Somme Association, gave his speech in Irish as well as English.
After the French Marseillaise, the British army's Royal Irish Regiment band struck up Amhrán na bhFiann. It was a surprise, and Ms Hanafin and the Ambassador sang along. "I felt very proud, standing there, singing my national anthem," Ms Hanafin said. "It was a perfect end to the day."