"I regret to state"...

Interviewer: One of the memories of your grandmother I think was of the young men of the area going to war in 1914 and you’re saying that she thought that the young men who were leaving smiling survived and the young men who were maybe more anxious or scared and weren’t smiling tended to not come back.  That must’ve been a really difficult time for people in this area.

Willie: It looked like as if they had a premonition that they wouldn’t see Irvinestown again you know.  It was very difficult, lots of homes got this long brown envelope, “I regret to state”, you know what followed.  They were missing or presumed killed.  Indeed, in a lot of cases it was on the 1^st July 1916 at the Battle of The Somme, that a lot of the neighbours around here died.

Interviewer: The first day was dreadful at The Somme.  A lot of people around here were part of The Ulster Division that fought on 1^st July

Willie: That’s right.

Interviewer: They did very well on 1^st July, they were one of the further advanced.

Willie: That’s right, I think there were over five thousand died on that single day in The British Army. I had an uncle, he was only fifteen at the time, he gave his age wrong to get enlisted. He lost one of his eyes, the bullet took one of his eyes out. He escaped by the skin of his teeth just. He’s not too long dead altogether, about twenty years I’d say.

Interviewer: So, lots of different ties.  They were all volunteers?

Willie: Yes, all volunteers; no conscripts in Ireland.

Interviewer: So, he was fifteen and volunteered and lost an eye, that’s dreadful, isn’t it?

Willie: That’s right. He had done the war and come home and was married at nineteen. The soldiers in The Great War and in the last war I suppose too, before they went over the top, they got a tot of rum to give them Dutch courage I suppose you’d call it.  Unfortunately, my Uncle Jonny, he didn’t stop.