A Coward if I Return, a Hero if I Fall by Neil Richardson

Author:Neil Richardson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The O'Brien Press
Published: 2020-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

In December 1972, Jerry Cregan passed away in his home in Tarbert, County Kerry, where he is now buried. He was ninety years old.

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Ultimately, Irish brothers fought and died in nearly every Allied army of the war. Covered in this chapter are Irish brothers in the British, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, and US Armies, but it must not be forgotten that South Africa also had an Irish regiment.

Any former soldier will tell you that brotherhood in the army is not limited to those who share the same blood. Soldiers in war form a strong bond. A trust is born out of shared suffering and looking out for one another in the most desperate of situations. The war made brothers out of many Irishmen who were normally divided by class, politics and religion.

For some, these war experiences were of mass slaughter and senseless waste – of living a feral existence, surviving only from day to day – while for others, their experiences revealed something about themselves, or about those around them. Some men discovered amazing inner resources. Others found true support and affection from friends and family. There were those that had such unbelievably lucky escapes that they could not help but wonder if God was looking out for them, and there were men who literally had spiritual experiences in the trenches.

For the men of the next chapter, each soldier went through something that was not typical of all First World War veterans. These men experienced the bizarre, the lucky, the unknown. And sometimes, even in the middle of hell, they encountered the compassion of the enemy.

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