Madam, - Following Oliver Fallon's letter of October 15th, commenting on some "negative response" to his Irishman's Diary of September 6th, it is sad to think that almost 90 years since the guns fell silent in 1918 there is still sporadic sniping whenever a mention is made of the involvement of Irish people in the first World War.
To date there are four revived Regimental Associations in existence: Royal Munsters, Royal Dublins, Connaught Rangers and the Leinsters, with a rumour of another one to commemorate the old Royal Irish Regiment, (18th Foot.) All these associations have been set up to honour the memory of Irish men and women who were killed in many wars and to help, where possible, those who survived and who may be in need of assistance or companionship. They also assist descendents with family research where possible.
There is a good relationship, both here and abroad, with some branches of ONE, the Organisation of National Ex-Servicemen who served in our national Army. We all get along fine and understand our military service no matter where we did it.
Starting in 1995, my wife and I decided to re-publish the histories of the disbanded Irish regiments and to date we have issued them all. Interestingly, the history of the Munsters sold out in double-quick time and we have only a limited number of the others in stock. We did it on a rather frayed shoe-string, with generous assistance from our bank, an interest-free loan from German friends, one of whose grandfathers had fought against my own granduncle on the same sector of the Western Front. It was not clear to our friends why Irishmen were fighting in a British army, but we tried to explain that at that time Ireland was, willingly or not, a part of the British Empire and that many of them in regular battalions had no choice. Others had volunteered, certainly, but whether due to patriotism, political persuasion or economic necessity was open to debate. It seems it still is.
I can vividly recall a remark made by an "old sweat" as I helped him back from an Armistice Day parade. I asked him the usual question - "Why did you go?" His answer was short and straight, as he hobbled along on his one good leg, his other wooden one and a walking stick: "Patriotism be damned. I joined because I could find no job at home, and as for all that King and Country stuff - I never saw the King and it wasn't my bloody country".
Consider my own family, classically divided; my late mother in Cumann na mBan, two of her brothers in the Old IRA and the other brother in the Royal Artillery. So, had I been alive then would I too have been in the British Army, the IRA or the national Army? Who can tell? It's worth thinking about but hardly worth shouting at each other or falling out about. Surely the scars are long healed; why keep re-opening them? - Yours, etc.,
JACK O'CONNELL, Ballydehob, Co Cork.