The killing fields at Flanders are worth a visit

A new visitor centre has just opened in Flanders commemorating the 30,000 Irish soldiers who died in the First World War.

SOMETIMES it’s the little things that have the greatest impact. Like the tiny piece of German shrapnel that our guide retrieves from a drill in a cornfield in Flanders, Belgium, a century after “the war to end all wars” devastated this place.

It’s not unusual to find wartime munitions here. Every other day, 100-year-old shells, mortars and gas canisters are taken from the ground as part of an ‘iron harvest’ that is a constant reminder of a war that claimed the lives of millions, including 30,000-plus Irishmen.