Page 13 - Garda Journal Winter 2019

IRISH HISTORY | Francis Ledwidge
killing him and five other men. Army Chaplain Father Devas was among the first to arrive on the scene. That night, he wrote in his diary: ‘Ledwidge killed..........blown to bits’! The men were buried where they fell at Carrefour de Rose. They were later re-interred in nearby Artillery Wood Military Cemetery. A stone tablet now commemorates him in the ‘Island of Ireland Peace Park’ at Messines, Belgium.The only work published in book form during Ledwidge’s own lifetime was the original ‘Songs of the Fields’ (1915), which was very well received. A second volume entitled, ‘Songs of Peace’ was in preparation when Ledwidge died. In 1919, Lord Dunsany arranged for more of Ledwidge’s work to be published, first in a third and final new volume, ‘Last Songs’, and later in an anthology. Francis Edward Ledwidge was a truly remarkable young man. His work as “peasant poet” and “soldier poet”, once a standard part of Irish school curriculum, vanished during the latter half of the 20th century. In recent years, a revived interest in the many forgotten Irishmen who died during the Great War has also seen a revived interest in the writings of poets, such as Tom Kettle and Francis Ledwidge. His life story was the subject of an RTÉ documentary entitled Behind the Closed Eye, which first broadcast on January 18th , 1973. It later won awards for Best Story and Best Implementation Documentary at the Golden Prague
“International Television Festival.
Ledwidge (left) in army uniform.
to the rank of lance corporal. Serbia was the next theatre of war for the young poet-soldier. Here the British and their Serbian allies sustained huge losses in a number of ill-fated attacks during the latter part of 1915. The harsh cold and wet weather gave Ledwidge a serious rheumatic attack. While retreating through the mountains, he collapsed and had to be hospitalised. His back was so badly inflamed that he was sent to hospital in Manchester. There, he received news of the 1916 Rising and the execution of his good friend and fellow poet Thomas MacDonagh. To this day, his poem ‘Lament for Thomas MacDonagh’ is regarded as one of his greatest works. For Ledwidge the Rising had changed everything. He was completely disillusioned and felt he must get out of the British army as soon as possible. When he returned to Slane on home leave, his friends and family found him a much- changed man. After persistent questioning from his brother, he famously declared, “If someone were to tell me now that the Germans were coming over our back wall, I wouldn’t lift a finger to stop them. They could come!” Returning to Richmond Barracks, he was court-martialled after a nasty exchange with an officer and lost his lance corporal stripe. His poem ‘After Court Martial’ aptly describes his feelings, “My mind is not my mind, therefore I take no heed of what men say, I lived ten thousand years before God cursed the town of Nineveh.”
THE END
In July 1917, after the Battle of Arras, Ledwidge’s unit was sent north into Belgium to prepare for the third Battle of Ypres. Despite the horror of war, his thoughts often turned to his native County Meath. He wrote letters to Lord Dunsany and to his friend and fellow poet Katherine Tynan, in which he spoke of his yearning for his home place, “Say a prayer that I may get this leave, and give us a condition my punctual return and sojourn until this war is over”. His prayers went unanswered. All leave was abruptly cancelled until after the battle. On July 31st, a work party of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Inniskillings were repairing the road to Pilkem near the village of Boezinghe, northwest of Ypres. During the afternoon, while Ledwidge was drinking tea in a mud hole alongside his comrades, a random shell exploded,
Ledwidge foresaw her fate. The night before her death, he dreamt of white birds flying over the Atlantic. His
poem ‘Caoin’, aptly describes his foreboding doom"
GARDA JOURNAL 11