1st Shankill Somme Association and Commonwealth War Cemetery, Shankill Road, Belfast

1st Shankill Somme Association and Commonwealth War Cemetery

 I can't claim to know a whole lot about the Shankhill Road.

I was baptised Catholic but am a non-practising agnostic bordering on atheism.

Nonetheless I presumed it safe to assume that Catholics practising or not from the Republic of Ireland, would be far from welcome.

 However perhaps times have moved on in the Shankhill, I don't know.

All I remembered was the "Shankhill Butchers" who kidnapped Catholics and tortured them horrendously before murdering them and an IRA bombing of a shop which killed a lot of innocent people, two of whom were children.

Neither memory seemed like a good reason for visiting but I wanted to see the Somme Association Gardens and Commonwealth War Cemetery.

A namesake having won the V.C. early during WW1 and both a Grandparent and Great Grandparent having fought respectively in WWI and WWII, I thought I had just about as good a reason as anyone for visiting the Shankhill Road, wandering lapsed Catholic or not.

I found the memorial Garden quite well kept and a nice quiet place for reflection, giving thanks and peaceful introspection.

There was a Statue of Queen Victoria in the grounds and interestingly some walled remains of a "Watch House".

This was where a Watchman kept guard to keep gravediggers at bay during the night.

Doctors, medical establishments and assorted teaching practises would pay handsomely for corpses at this time with which they could carry out teaching lessons, demonstrations or experiments.

In order to meet this lucrative demand Grave Robbers would often attempt to dig up freshly buried bodies at night and steal them away.

Judging by the many Consultants carrying out Private work while using Public resources, taking "Bungs" from Hospital Cafes and Shops to secretly top up their salaries and promoting branded rather than generic drugs while simultaneously being paid by Pharmaceutical Companies to give "talks" at Conferences I actually sometimes wonder have medical ethics moved on much from the days of the Grave Robbers? 

Here lieth 3 of Alexander Cunninghams Children 1770.

The lettering on the Gravestone is very beautiful.

Another couple of old Gravestones with beautiful lettering.

The Somme was an unmitigated disaster during WWI although you could argue all parts of all Wars are a disaster in the first place.

So many troops were killed in such a short space of time that the British authorities initially imposed a blanket censorship of the Media and the Postal service.

Of the nearly 60,000 casualties on day one, almost 20,000 were killed with the remainder wounded.

First day of the Somme - IWM.

I was delighted to find an ancient Bullaun Stone at Saint Matthews Church on the Shankhill.

It was most unexpected.

I am firmly of the belief that rich people argue with other rich people by sending poor people from one tribe to inflict violence on poor people from another tribe while even more rich people from both tribes look on and sell the commodities of War to become even richer. 

Ergo ALL WAR IS A WIN WIN FOR THE RICH on both sides while the poor only become even poorer.

Dulce et Decorum Est

Don't even get me started on internecine Warfare.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.

Keep the wheels turning.

Two Workers went to War.

Two Workers went to War,

neither knew just what the fuck for,

One manned a Machine Gun the other a Tank,

neither had ever managed a Bank,

One was a Street Sweeper the other a Waiter,

they both went to battle and died a day later,

The Wife of one had three young kids,

whose house was auctioned off after multiple online bids,

The Spouse of the other lived all alone,

in a squalid damp Rental with little to own,

And the War rumbled on like the “Devil may cares,”

while the Banker and Corporate bought and sold Shares,

And the Nikki Dow, Dax and the Financial Times,

kerchinged and kerchinged to the wonderful spoils,

As Northrup, Lockheed and Raytheon grinned from ear to ear,

the World shouted “5% 5% 5%” just out of fear,

So to keep the ball rolling they starved all the young,

then they sold some more missiles, a few bombs and a gun,

And as the Cash kept on flowing and the babies were dying,

all the while the Mother’s were twisted, broken and crying,

The Ghosts of the workers ruefully looking back in time,

wondering just how they died covered in mud, filth, blood and stinking slime,

Still the Shares kept on rising as the bodies were falling,

the Bells of Wall Street vulgar, Pealing and Calling,

Canary Wharf, Zurich and Japan’s Tokyo too,

so much money in death but what can you do ?

With American Dollars and a large German bomb,

they were dropping munitions with remarkable aplomb,

Not on fighters, nor enemy nor terrorist scum,

but on babies, civilians and children struck dumb,

Yet the workers lined up and signed up for War,

and still haven’t figured out just what the fuck for.

The Dublin and Laois cyclist.