A welcome end to four years of Armageddon

At least 40,000 Irish died in the Great War before the guns fell silent on November 11, 1918. The relief at the arrival of peace was tinged with sorrow and a sense of unfinished business, writes Gerry White.

In the early hours of November 11, 1918, representatives from the warring nations of Britain, France, and Germany met in a railway carriage in the forest of Compiègne and agreed terms of an armistice that would bring the conflict then known as the ‘Great War’ to an end.