Emmet Dalton on Ireland's losses in World War One

Cathal O’Shannon talks to General Emmet Dalton of The Royal Dublin Fusailers, 16th Irish Division at Guinchy where sixty years previously he had led his men in battle.

Emmet Dalton believes it is impossible to know if Ireland paid too high a price for participating in the war.

Cathal O’Shannon talks to Emmet Dalton at Guinchy where sixty years previously he had led his men in battle.

Emmet Dalton says it is impossible to say if Ireland’s involvement in the war was too high a price too pay. He believes that the Irish men who fought were fighting for a cause they felt was fully justified, to preserve the freedom of the world. He says that it is difficult today to understand how awful conditions were and he does not believe that today’s generation would have survived.

Dalton says that jobs of the officers in field were incredibly difficult when you think that during the Battle of the Somme life expectancy was ten days.