125306: War Memories

Today 1st July 2016 the words of Domhnall Ruadh Choruna’s An Eala Bhan is symbolising the Battle of The Somme on Facebook.

This has prompted me to relate the poignant story concerning Domhnall Ruadh Choruna which was related by his fellow soldier Malcolm Nicolson from Balallan, also serving in the Cameron Highlanders and at his side in the trenches in 1916. This story was retold to me by Malcolm Nicolson’s daughter Katie Anne 

On look out, in the Front Line in the trenches Donald Macdonald Domhnall Ruadh Choruna wrote Gaelic poetry with a stump of a pencil, and had resourced some very scarce scraps of paper. He placed the paper with his verses inside a little tin, which he embedded in the wall of the trench. To keep it secure until the next time the battalion were on look-out, and he could have some quiet time to add to his collection of thoughts of home.

One evening the battalion returned to the look-out post and Domhnall Ruadh found his little tin had been discovered by another soldier. That soldier had stuffed his boots with the carefully hidden paper and the few leaves lying at the bottom of the trench were carefully dried by Domhnall Ruadh. 

On some of the papers he salvaged were verses of An Eala Bhan. 

Norman Nicolson used to shed a silent tear and relate the story of his good friend Domhnall Ruadh on hearing An Eala Bhan sung on the radio in the early 1960s

Interview Magaidh Smith 2016