大象传媒

This story is taken from an interview with Columbanus Deegan at the Dublin WW2 Commemoration, and has been added to the site with their permission. The authors fully understand the site's terms and conditions. The interviewer was Jim Lynne, and the transcription was by Bruce Logan.
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I鈥檓 a member of the Franciscan order here in the south of Ireland. Based in Waterford, and I鈥檓 a very privileged member of the elite here in Waterford. Off to the SE of Ireland.
I served in the RAF, and I was grounded. I was sent in then with the assault invasion forces with a salvage unit, to salvage crashed aircraft, or look for downed pilots and get them back home, or salvage the aircraft. General duties like that. The whole of the European campaign either doing that or doing other work relating to airfields and such.
A beautiful big harley-davidson that they gave me to do this work, and I was only a young boy of 19! The bicycle at home in Ireland. I have very pleasant memories of the war, and when I survived Normandy I said 鈥淭his is it鈥�, away I went. I ended up going right through France, Belgium, Holland, Gerrmany, and I ended up on the Baltic coast when the war ended. A tour of Europe at the British expense!
My 2 school pals from here that went with me didn鈥檛 survive. I got to visit their graves in Normandy. When you鈥檙e young you can take everything in your stride. But to us it was like a big game of cricket or football, until we hit Germany. I actually saw the inmates of Belsen, and realised there was evil. Nazis. Before that we were just fighting the German soldiers. He was just another guy like ourselves! But now we found behind them was the Nazis, we hadn鈥檛 known all that much about them before that. But now we knew about them it changed our whole attitude. You can imagine.
Now we realised we were very proud and happy to be on the winning side, to eliminate an evil such as Nazism. And that has carried me along.
I wasn鈥檛 just the soldier of fortune which I had been before. I was fighting for another country, but now I was fighting against something that was bad and that needed to be eliminated. And if I had a little hand in that, I鈥檓 very happy.
By the treatment of those people in these camps 鈥� I saw many many camps 鈥� many people in the low countries, how they treated the people in Holland, I befriended the people there and heard their awful stories. So the thing was becoming a whole different attitude to just another war against soldiers 鈥� soldiers against soldiers 鈥� it was good against evil! And I was happy to be on the good side.
I came from a very republican family, but I had an adventurous spirit. I wanted to fly aeroplanes. I wanted excitement in my life. There was nothing in Ireland at that time, we were neutral. We were very deprived here, we had nothing really, and here we had the brits welcoming us with open arms and offering us a good salary. Good conditions, and here we go! Why not? Soldiers of fortune. So that鈥檚 really basically what happened to most irishmen. Not alone myself. A lot of irishmen were just seeking money and seeking adventure and seeking a new type of life. And we realised of course that we would be treated with respect 鈥� we were volunteers, and they welcomed us with open arms! And we were very happy with the whole situation.

[how did your family react?]
Various ways. My parents didn鈥檛 want to, because my father was in WWI and survived. His 2 brothers didn鈥檛 so he didn鈥檛 want to see his son going off. If if had a son now, I wouldn鈥檛 like to see him going off to war. Because war is not nice. But they just had to accept that when a young man makes up his mind like that it can overcome a lot of barriers. And my 2 brothers 鈥� 1 was very neutral, 1 was very republican. So you were fighting all sorts of little battles. You soldier on and you try to do the best you can.

[could you sum up today鈥檚 events?]
marvellous. I鈥檓 very privileged to be here!
I never thought I would see the Irish army in this place. This is the first time the Irish National Anthem has been played in this place, the very first time. And to be played by the no1 army band, and to be represented of our President, and our Teoshoch 鈥�
To me that鈥檚 progress!

I went to school close by here [the Dublin war memorial]. And when I was a schoolboy, this was the city dump. My father, a Dublin fusilier who had managed to survive the First world war left his 2 brothers behind him, was astounded.

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