MacGill's name in vain

Yet again, the summer school in Glenties, which bears the name of Patrick MacGill, has ignored both the writer and his participation in World War 1. That this should be the case in the war’s centenary year is a glaring omission.

MacGill joined the London Irish Rifles, was injured in the Battle of Loos, and wrote several books based on his war experience. An English academic, Prof David Taylor, has analysed MacGill’s war writings.Taylor’s book is entitled Memory, Narrative and the Great War-Rifleman Patrick MacGill and the Construction of Wartime Experience.

This history is of little interest to those who assemble in Glenties every July to “pose the questions”. These questions have already been thrashed to a pulp in the media.