A Coward if I Return, A Hero if I Fall: Stories of Irishmen in World War I

Is a remarkable collection of veterans' stories gathered from soldiers' families, military records, diaries, documents and letters. It shows just how significant Irish involvement in the First World War truly was.

From 1914-1918, two hundred thousand Irishmen — from all parts of Ireland; from all social, religious and political backgrounds - went to war. At least thirty-five thousand never came home.

Irishmen served everywhere: in Belgium at Ypres, in France on the Somme, and in Gallipoli, Palestine, and Mesopotamia (Iraq). An Irishman fired the first British Army shot of the war. An Irishman won the first Victoria Cross. Irish flying aces were celebrated as aerial heroes. The war also united Irishmen. At Messines Ridge, the soldiers of north and south won a victory together; on Frezenberg Ridge, they were slaughtered side by side.

It is time now to honour and acknowledge all those Irishmen who went to war.

Their lives should never be forgotten.

'The finest modern effort to record the tales of the Irish who fought in the greatest concentrated slaughter in human history.'