United Ireland: How Nationalists and Unionists Fought Together in Flanders

The First World War is part of Ireland’s shared history. This feature length documentary presented by Ronan McGreevy of The Irish Times tells the story of how the nationalist 16th (Irish) Division and the 36th (Ulster) Division fought together in Flanders during the battle of Messines Ridge and Passchendaele in 1917.
The story of the nationalist officer Willie Redmond and the unionist stretcher bearer John Meeke, who rescued him from the battlefield, has inspired those who hope to promote peace in Ireland through the remembrance of a conflict which claimed more Irish lives than any other in history.
This film is made with the assistance of the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Imperial War Museum and Visit Flanders.
Read more: www.irishtimes...

[@armac8158]

Fantastic film. I was recently at Tyne Cot cemetery with my father. My Great Great Uncle is buried there. He served in the 5/6 Cameronians(Scottish Rifles). Whatever side of the divide you are on and whether or not you agree with why The Irish went to war,these Men need to be remembered. Lest We Forget.

[@imranmunsif2351]

O Allah, send a perfect prayer and complete greeting of peace upon our master Muhammad - the one by whom problems are solved, and anxieties are relieved, and needs are fulfilled, and aspirations are attained and good endings are received, and by whose noble face the clouds give rain - and upon his Family and Companions, with every glance and every breath, by the number of everything that is known to You. Alhamdulillah Ala Kulli Haal.

[@wyattearp910]

Praise Jesus ✝️

[@paulymullo]

Brave men of ww1,willie redmond faught and went over the top,and john meak,helped him,all irishmen RIP......John meak,a brave man,but the historian said"i believe the wounds he got from helping willie redmond cost him his life???well if he didnt help willie he wouldnt be the brave irish man that this story is about,and bringing up "you notice the differeance in the headstone"..from a historian,??the irishmen who gave their lives are brave men,no matter what religion,that historian should read more books

[@Jim54_]

How Protestants and Catholics, two groups of people who worship the same god, same Jesus and use the same bible don’t get on, just baffles the mind

[@winterwolf9797]

I agree... but it’s no the same bible

[@paulymullo]

Agree too,same bible until henry chaged it

[@michaelahern6821]

It was king James that changed it Henry viii remained a Catholic at heart ..

[@davidpryle3935]

@Jim54. Perhaps you could educate yourself by reading some history, and you’ll soon see that bibles or the like have nothing to do with it. Maybe start with the plantation of Ulster.

[@MarvinofMars]

Visited these graveyards and gates back in 1984 as a school trip, the ages of the young men! then we saw WW1 veterans. I had 3 great Uncles from Tyrone went and fought in WW1. They stayed on in the Army after the war as there deal to join was rolled over ( Ulster got a double deal) . They went on to Dunkirk in 1939, 1 was captured. 2 saw that war through also. They both retired in North of England. I recall meet 1 of them in late 1970s, jet black haired man, towered 6ft 2inchs. His local accent never broke either. Angering me is they are ignored by all sides. British and Irish memorials.

[@Horizon344]

Excellent film, deserves to be on RTE 1.

[@mikedon5205]

My grans first cousin died at messines, with the munsters ,not sure what date think September 1916

[@paulymullo]

John meak a brave man helped willie redmond,john died of TB not as the historian said helping willie redmond,

[@balingertony8034]

Passchendaele 16th Irish Rifles How did you spend your youthful wheels of fire? With all your passion, your love, your dreams. Those things imagined to capture within their moments entire. A uniform crisp before-you, to intoxicate, Its vive, its promise and lustre donned to wear, But here, romance’s cloak is long torn, caked in dank mud; Its every illusional grain, its pose - ‘home by Christmas’ laid long thread-bare. For you have become but a number, a pawn to forsake, With no lesser a gambler’s luck… Your number itself shall make, As you wear it standing there, dodging, hiding, clinging in this abyss; This murder field you volunteered. Oh, how this moment, of August, in its infernal rain, Yon… Its ins’t of cold sodden wilderness, it’s now. Its toil and fury, and yes again, it calls out your name; In strength of arm to rise a fight in you ferment, A duty called; for a so-called noble claim. And there to dodge alone wounded thus. Alone, lost in the cratered cold shadows of a darkening dusk, whose amber bloody decree, calls its count of brothers, On Frezenberg ridge, we lay here… the given and lost. Upon a moment’s calm, dice a breath, a mumbled prayer in thought, We men, yet but a countless few, with our fearless intention beat, Nay deter’ d by the mud gnawing at our feet. And when that terrible whistle blown, Yells aloud, yay! to our God we scream, Horror filled and dash forth, to heaven… if it must; A dash, where all earthly dreams forfeit to dust. I wish not to kill another man, I’m so tired of killing, I’m sorry how this whole thing began. Don’t ask me how I’m still standing, or what I’m doing here, To play in fatigue, another General’s tormented plan, That unleashed, and like a demon preys; To steal our living dreams and all our hopeful days. We, the unfallen, it’s given few, the last 16th - in mercy kneel, Reverent, with sad tears amid all, and there our brothers lay, Who here frozen cast, laid and broken forth, rest-eth cold; Beneath this unforgiving, Flanders’s clay. How then shall we dare tomorrow with her rising dawn, for a common peace to shine. Where no more cannons report and belch this unforgiving mud, Where no more cordite nor bayonette shall stench, hot laced, rancid in blood. When again to walk in Erin’s lovely sun. Oh, that peace to amble carefree down a summer’s fresh verdant glade; to rest a weary soldier’s soul. With an enfolded brow, a hidden tear, seeking lost innocence there. To forget forever the pain, Least war’s evil deeds shall haunt its toll remain. Oh, to remove that black death’s shadow stench, its dark vile senseless stain. How shall we undo all that was so naively sown, Paid a patriot in belief, for a homeland of our own. Its revenue taken by bullets in blood. In Passchendaele’s silence, Where my Erin brothers brave, now lay sleeping, without tomorrow, In their early eternal grave. And so did those brave Irish men walk before destiny’s sword upon the 16th of August 2017 into the machine gun’s hail on Frezenberg ridge. 20 AfB 19

[@veronicadredd22]

Twas far better to die 'neath an Irish sky, Than at Suvla or Sud el Bar.

[@Horizon344]

Better dying under a foreign sky holding the line against the advance of the II Reich, than to safely hide at home (for now) allowing others to defend Europe's - & your own liberty - on your behalf.

[@Horizon344]

II Reich, dummy, not III Reich. Take some kindly advice, don't join the "RA" (if you can find them these days after they surrendered in 1994), & if you can find them skulking anywhere don't let them give you a gun or a bomb, they're complex things you're bound to hurt yourself with it. =/

[@jharekcarnelian]

Your point makes no sense as there were numerous Irishmen fighting in WW2. You seem to be mixing and matching the second and third Reich eras.

[@Tellemore]

veronicadredd22 Better to recognize the bravery and sacrifice of brave Irishmen everywhere than make this about politics.

[@RobertK1993]

Tellemore British Loyalists on here can't keep their sectarian prejudices to themselves they are weaklings.

[@keithkeegan9776]

R.i.p men.

[@thenextshenanigantownandth4393]

Great to see the cooperation between the landmass of Ireland, even if it was in a pointless war caused by the imperialistic British to line their pockets .

[@Horizon344]

Stick to watching He-Man cartoons, history & philosophy is clearly beyond you.

[@immortaltyrant2474]

You are clearly deluded. The World Wars devastated the United Kingdom. They are one of the reasons, if not the main reason, we are no longer on top.

[@MrAlien911]

The war wasn't caused by the British, nor did it line their pockets. In fact the war nearly bankrupted the entire nation, which you would know if you weren't a total idiot who can barely read.

[@MrAlien911]

@@SeanQuinn-IrishMarxist You literally can't even read. He clearly wrote second (II) reich

[@SeanQuinn-IrishMarxist]

@@MrAlien911 The wonders of editing a comment, or maybe I was tired. Don't know. Besides, this was over a year ago mate. I really don't give a shit.

[@yogi1kenobi]

No nationalists here all fought under the crown🇬🇧

[@RobertK1993]

They Roman Catholics where Irish patriots the Protestants where traitors.

[@garycoss5783]

I can tell you now...as a english man living in Ireland....the UK has no interest in or northern Ireland...you are a waste on the UK economy...

[@FionanUaMurchadha]

​@RobertK1993, I've ever heard of Henry Grattan, Theobald Wolfe Tone, Bulmer Hobson, etc.

[@yogi1kenobi]

All took the oath

[@FionanUaMurchadha]

@@yogi1kenobi which oath?