Are We On The Verge Of A Somme Burnout?: Jason Burke

Are We On The Verge Of A ‘SommeBurnout’?

Posted by Jason Burke on Jul 2, 2013 in The Great War | 0 comments

Monday 1 July 2013 marks the 97^th anniversary of the opening day of the Battle of the Somme in 1916.   The opening day of the Somme battle is regarded as the most catastrophic episode in the prestigious history of the British army with 57,470 casualties on the first day alone and over 350,000 British casualties during the remainder of the battle which lasted until November of that year.  However it is clear that the Somme and the legacy which surrounds it can mean different things to different people, this could be said of all historical events but in the Irish context the Somme resonates more than most due to the cultural and political importance attached to it.  For this reason it seems that in Northern Ireland we are more exposed to memory and commemoration of the Somme, but how long can this continue?

On 1 July 2013 in East Belfast, Number 6 District of the Orange Order paraded the streets in what is known as the largest and longest running commemorative parade to mark the Somme in the world.  Simultaneously the nationalist residents of the Short Strand protested against this commemoration due to the fact that the parade passes near to their homes.  This powerful imagery encapsulates the variance in attitudes towards the Somme, even in one district of Belfast.  On one hand the unionists of East Belfast actively remember, while the nationalists of East Belfast actively remember to forget.  For those who actively remember it would not be unusual to commemorate the Somme several times per year, every year, not to mention the occasional active commemoration of other battles.  It is the Somme however which generates by far the most interest, and an abnormal focus, but there is a very good reason for it.

Ulster Volunteer Flute Band, East Belfast take part in the annual Battle of the Somme commemoration parade in First World War British Army Uniforms.

The Great War, and in particular the Somme battle, possesses a unique significance to Ulster Protestants, its context of the Home Rule crisis in Ulster and the existence of the U.V.F. gives it a definite political overtone.  Just as the Irish Volunteers had provided a ‘blood sacrifice’ in the name of the Irish Republic the Ulster Volunteers have created a similar legacy in the name of King, country and resistance to Home Rule.  This ‘blood sacrifice’ formed part of the psyche and the DNA of the newly created Northern Ireland state, and from this point onward the Somme would always have a special place in the hearts of the Ulster people.  It placed them firmly amongst a UK/European wide commemorative community which has provided a form of legitimacy to an insecure Protestant/unionist heritage.  By comparison the Battle of the Boyne celebration, now into their 323^rd year, is an almost exclusively Irish phenomenon.  The Boyne is an example of an event which makes Protestantism/unionism feel unique and triumphant but inevitably comes with an isolation and a vulnerability which allows it to be bullied for being different by those who have been alienated by it.

Is it realistic to assume that the Somme will be commemorated with the same vivacity in 200 years as the Boyne?

As memory of the Boyne continued to age and became evermore distant it was timely that the Somme should provide an alternative and fresh focus, particularly for a fledgling nation.  The Somme fitted a deliberate unionist narrative, of that there can be no doubt, it continues to fit that narrative in 2013 by means of conflict resolution.  Where once there were masked gunmen on the gable ends of loyalist areas they have been increasingly replaced by effigies of Ulster Division soldiers charging across gable walls presumably towards the German enemy.  Where once we had combatants emerging from a conflict which ripped Northern Ireland to pieces we now have the 36^th Ulster Division Memorial Association or ‘Somme societies’ which are seen as quasi ex-servicemen’s association for a section of those ex-combatants.  A Somme Association was created in 1990 ‘to ensure that the efforts of Irishmen to preserve world peace between 1914 and 1919 are remembered and understood.’  They did this by restoring the Ulster Tower at Thiepval and built the Somme Heritage Centre in County Down.  In the souvenir shop of the Somme Centre you can buy, Somme mugs, Somme pens/pencils, Somme keyrings, Somme ties, before leaving the shop with your goods in a Somme carrier-bag (presumably for an extra 5p)  Professor Keith Jeffrey has written of a visit to loyalist souvenir shop in East Belfast where he was able to purchase a Somme greetings card with James Beadle’s painting on the front, ‘On the outside was 1 July 1916-when the British Army suffered its greatest ever losses on a single day-and inside it read ‘Many Happy Returns of the Day‘.  These strands of our society (murals, societies, merchandise etc), however welcome they may be, have generated an infatuation with the Somme which puts us all in severe danger of a ‘Somme burnout’.  There are dozens of Somme based murals which remind us every day of the battle, dozens of Somme societies who host and take part in dozens of parades, services and commemorations which consistently keeps the Somme at the forefront of our thoughts, but crucially this is at the expense of other battles and even other wars.

While growing up in the Cregagh area of East Belfast I regularly played on the streets which were named ‘Somme Drive’, ‘Thiepval Avenue’, ‘Picardy Avenue’, ‘Albert Drive’, ‘Hamel Drive’, ‘Bapaume Avenue’ all names from the Battle of the Somme in 1916 and it was those street names which caused me to ask questions and gave me an initial interest in all things Great War related.  In Cregagh there is what’s known as a ‘colony’ of houses-homes fit for heroes-built for ex-servicemen by the Irish Sailors and Soldiers’ Land Trust in the 1920s.  Professor Keith Jeffery has commented on these same homes, ‘What is remarkable about these battlefield placenames is the way in which terrible sites of death and destruction are commemorated in what have become prosaic home addresses.  The French have a word for it: banalisation… But, all the same, one wonders how it was for those veterans returning from the horrors of war to be reminded of the trenches and the slaughter every day, with places where comrades had died becoming a mere address where people live.’

I somewhat suspect that those who organised the first Somme commemoration parade all those years ago in Ballymacarrett district would not have envisaged its format in 2013 where the alcohol consumed by the spectators and the joyful scenes along the route would lead one to assume that 1 July 1916 had been a resounding success.  If I were to conduct a very simple survey with the parade spectators how many would be able to tell me the basic facts about the Battle of the Somme? How many would tell me that the UVF fought at the Somme?  There would be those who would try to tell me that the UDA fought at the Somme.  How many would be of the belief that the Somme was a success?  Education is the key if we are to move in a direction which resembles forward.

My guess is that this frenzy of Somme related activity will intensify as we approach the centenary in July 2016.  I suspect that the momentum of this will carry through for a few more years before the focus begins to wane.  Elements of our recent troubled past will soon be commemorated as ‘history’ by our younger generation which will further divide their attention from the Somme and from the Boyne.  It is inevitable that these new generations will leave the Somme legacy behind as part of a natural and generational phase out over time, we are at pains to stop this because the Great War has quietly slipped from living memory.  What we can do however is educate our young people to commemorate in an appropriate and inclusive way, one which is forward thinking rather than backward facing, and one which has a wider scope than just the Ulster Division on 1 July 1916.