Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme - Frank McGuinness

This is a play I did a number of years ago whilst still at school. The play takes revolves around the lives of 8 characters, Irish protestant in origin and examines their lives in the context of the Irish entry into the second world war. The play is divided into 4 sections Remembrance, Initiation, Pairings and Bonding. These titles as well as being literal expositions of the content of each scene, also evoke a great deal more; reflecting the change in relationships between the 8 men, the trails that the war puts them through and a metaphorical representation of the political situation of the ... more

Coming from Northern Ireland, I found this play perhaps more relevant than one who doesn't understand the history aand the divide may. However, the themes that it deals with are universally relevant, such as war and its effects, sectarianism and ethnic divides, even homosexuality. The main character of the play is a Protestant Ulsterman called Pyper who we see at the beginning of the play as an old, decrepid man seemingly suffering from shell-shock or post-war insanity, after having survived the Somme, perhaps because of desertion. The story follows eight men in the same battalion at the ... more