Enniskillen Castle: An Irish perspective on World War 1

Michele and I crossed the border to visit the Northern Irish town of Enniskillen.  I recall travelling there during the Troubles.  The journey entailed going through a military checkpoint with heavily armed soldiers and hooks in the road that could be activated to rip your car tyres to shreds.  Today the only clue that you have changed country is the "Fermanagh welcomes you" road sign.

Enniskillen itself is a scenic, peaceful city with a very interesting Castle Museum:

Anyone with a passing familiarity with the horrors of the Famine, or the brutality of the Black and Tans, might be  surprised to know that tens of thousands of Catholic Irish served with conspicuous bravery on the side of the British during the First World War.  The Enniskillen Museum had a tremendous collection of recruitment posters:

The Museum highlighted the famous war poet Francis Ledwidge as an example of the dilemma that Irish Nationalists faced.

Ledwidge was a true Nationalist, having joined the Irish Volunteers in 1914.  Nevertheless he felt honour bound to join the British as he explained in a letter:

However his horror at the British decision to shoot the leaders of the Easter Uprising in 1916, caused him to write "Lament for Thomas MacDonagh" (one of the executed):

He shall not hear the bittern cry
in the wild sky, where he is lain,
Nor voices of the sweeter birds
Above the wailing of the rain