Easter Rising or the battle of the Somme - Where would you have been fighting?

mikemac · 22-04-2011 07:30PM

Not saying you made it up, just in a different order

mgmt · 22-04-2011 07:31PM

My Grandfather fought with the Old IRA in Longford. I guess fighting against Germany was in the overall best interests of Ireland. It's tragic to see all the photos of the dead Trinity students who were killed in WW1 on the walls at TCD. I probably would have joined in neither. Pointless really.

damonjewel · 22-04-2011 07:34PM

With the benefit of hindsight, i would have fought in the easter rising. i'd rather a week of white hot conflict than being nuts deep in mud for 4 years of ass, getting gassed, shelled and told to walk towards the enemy lines.

Without the benefit of hindsight I would probably have been nuts deep in mud like my great grandfather who was a poverty stricken man living in a tenement. The war offered him and many like him opportunity instead of impoverishment. His sacrifice kept his family alive, fock all that king and country b0ll0cks.

My name is URL · 22-04-2011 07:38PM

My great grandad fought in Somme, and his brother fought in the Easter Rising. I dunno which war I'd have gone with.. just glad I don't have to make the choice!

stewie01 · 22-04-2011 07:38PM

going by recent threads on here id say most west brit, nationalist apologist boardies would have been at the easter rising shooting at the GPO.

whens this site going co.uk anyways

Deedsie · 22-04-2011 07:40PM

I think people are reading me wrong! In reality no German ever persecuted the Irish (to my knowledge)! However, for financial reasons, the fact that home rule had all been granted-ish, fighting for the freedom of small nations, the belief that Ireland would have been granted greater home rule.

All these things would have resulted in me getting the ferry. In my heart of hearts, id have been more willing to fight and die for Irish freedom if all the above were not true.

Finally, I think we are all blessed we don't have these problems today. If I was actually facing down the barrel of a gun I reckon I wouldn't be half as brave.

karma_ · 22-04-2011 07:42PM

WW1 wasn't a war, it was just industrialised murder. After the butchery was done the allies then attempted to put Germany on it's knees which was the root cause of WW2 which was industrialised murder taken to a complete new level.

So basically, probably the most stupid war in history, with far reaching consequences and I'd be willing to bet the men who died during it would rather we learned from that mistake and endeavour not to repeat it instead of paying lip service and wearing a poppy once a year.

hogflem · 22-04-2011 07:47PM

Being Australian born I'd be buried in Gallipoli somewhere.:(

mikemac · 22-04-2011 07:48PM

Deedsie wrote: »

fighting for the freedom of small nations,

One of the greatest pieces of propaganda ever invented.
The Irish must go to aid of "poor little Catholic Belgium"

The same country that had plantations in the Congo under the personal ownership of the King. If a worker didn't make their quota they could get their arm hacked off with a machete.
Edit, to be fair reforms were started after King Leopald

There were good reasons for Irishmen to go fight. Poverty and supporting your family probably one of the best

But supporting Belgium was nothing but propaganda and lies

(not aimed at you Deedsie and it's a good thread, one of the better ones in AH)

questionmark? · 22-04-2011 07:49PM

Nah wouldnt have gone to the Somme would have much rathered go to the French Riviera.

landsleaving · 22-04-2011 07:51PM

stewie01 wrote: »

going by recent threads on here id say most west brit, nationalist apologist boardies would have been at the easter rising shooting at the GPO.

whens this site going co.uk anyways

Take that postal service!

pew! pew!

RichieC · 22-04-2011 07:55PM

I'm a man of peace. I dont murder on the order of some rich F*ck.

KeithAFC · 22-04-2011 07:55PM

Probably no greater honour than dying on the battlefield with your fellow volunteers. Much respect to them from me.

Riddle101 · 22-04-2011 07:55PM

I'd fight in the Easter Rising. I'd rather fight and die in my own land, fighting for a cause I believe in, then fight some other nation's war. A war which I think was pretty stupid anyway. At least in the rising, i'd be fighting for my own country as opposed to the Somme, where i'd just be fighting for the British and Crown.

Dr_Teeth · 22-04-2011 07:57PM

Neither, I'd have been fumbling in a greasy till.

Deedsie · 22-04-2011 07:58PM

stewie01 wrote: »

going by recent threads on here id say most west brit, nationalist apologist boardies would have been at the easter rising shooting at the GPO.

whens this site going co.uk anyways

Your calling me a west Brit?

karma_ · 22-04-2011 07:58PM

KeithAFC wrote: »

Probably no greater honour than dying on the battlefield with your fellow volunteers. Much respect to them from me.

It's the 21st Century and we still have people who think this. There's no honour or glory in killing and they certainly isn't any in dying.

RichieC · 22-04-2011 07:59PM

karma_ wrote: »

It's the 21st Century and we still have people who think this. There's no honour or glory in killing and they certainly isn't any in dying.

Unless you're a Klingon.

KeithAFC · 22-04-2011 08:00PM

karma_ wrote: »

It's the 21st Century and we still have people who think this. There's no honour or glory in killing and they certainly isn't any in dying.

Of course there is. For ones country and land, it echoes in eternity.

cml387 · 22-04-2011 08:03PM

Who had the cutest uniforms?

Well,them.

Pompey Magnus · 22-04-2011 08:03PM

KeithAFC wrote: »

Probably no greater honour than dying on the battlefield with your fellow volunteers. Much respect to them from me.

Dulce et Decorum Est - Wilfred Owen

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime . . .
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, –
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

RichieC · 22-04-2011 08:04PM

KeithAFC wrote: »

Of course there is. For ones country and land, it echoes in eternity.

:rolleyes:

As I believe Confucius once said "what a parcel of ****e"

rednik · 22-04-2011 08:08PM

In the GPO with my comrades.

mikemac · 22-04-2011 08:08PM

KeithAFC wrote: »

for ones country and land, it echoes in eternity.

You and Patrick Pearse would have gotten on great together

cml387 · 22-04-2011 08:08PM

[FONT=Verdana,Arial]On passing The New Menin Gate

Here was the world’s worst wound. And here with pride
‘Their name liveth for ever,’ the Gateway claims.
Was ever an immolation so belied
As these intolerably nameless names?
Well might the Dead who struggled in the slime
Rise and deride this sepulchre of crime[/FONT]

karma_ · 22-04-2011 08:10PM

RichieC wrote: »

:rolleyes:

As I believe Confucius once said "what a parcel of ****e"

I think he's watched Troy once too often.

landsleaving · 22-04-2011 08:10PM

cml387 wrote: »

[FONT=Verdana,Arial]On passing The New Menin Gate

Here was the world’s worst wound. And here with pride
‘Their name liveth for ever,’ the Gateway claims.
Was ever an immolation so belied
As these intolerably nameless names?
Well might the Dead who struggled in the slime
Rise and deride this sepulchre of crime[/FONT]

"War! huh-yeah
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing
Uh-huh"

mikemac · 22-04-2011 08:12PM

If I were fierce, and bald, and short of breath,
I'd live with scarlet Majors at the Base,
And speed glum heroes up the line to death.
You'd see me with my puffy, petulant face,
Guzzling and gulping in the best hotel,
Reading the Roll of Honour. 'Poor young chap,'
I'd say --- 'I used to know his father well;
Yes, we've lost heavily in this last scrap.'
And when the war is done and youth stone dead,
I'd toddle safely home and die --- in bed.

Siegfried Sasson

My name is URL · 22-04-2011 08:14PM

Hair is another name for sex.

-Vidal Sassoon

KeithAFC · 22-04-2011 08:14PM

RichieC wrote: »

:rolleyes:

As I believe Confucius once said "what a parcel of ****e"

"We make war that we may live in peace." -Aristotle

Easter Rising or the battle of the Somme - Where would you have been fighting?

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