Today I read a short story from Frank O’Connor entitled Guest of The Nation. It is a short story about Irish soldiers watching two English soldiers who are prisoners of theirs, but not really. They roam freely about the Inn they are being kept at and all become friends. They are being held because 4 Irish soldiers are being prisoners as well and the English are threatening to shoot them, and if they do, the Irish soldiers are to shoot the prisoners. The English shoot them, and the Irish soldiers have to shoot their English friends, and feel great remorse for having to kill their friends.
My paragraph summary hardly does the story justice. I am actually a huge fan of short stories (some of my favorite being The Book of Sand, The Worlds Most Dangerous Game, and the Cask of Montenegro). This one I think grasps a good point that happens in many wars of a soldier performing his duties and it conflicting with his personal ethics. Doing so can cause catastrophic mental anguish to a soldier (if you have ever talked to many Vietnam veterans, many wont even tell their most horrifying war stories) and leave them scarred for the rest of their lives. This story shows that there is no exception even in regards to the era it occurred in.
Since I already posted my wartime song and don’t want to re-post it, I’ll simply post a classic song involving Irish violence!
T-minus 2 days till Ireland, this should be interesting…
~Will
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