Walter Donway

Daybreak on the Somme Walter Donway

During the terrible slaughter of World War I battles in France, the legendary Irish Guard always was among those leading the charge. Through devastating machine- gun fire, barrage bombing by big shells, and mustard gas, the Irish Guard took its casualties and drove on to the German trenches-and beyond. In the waist deep water and mud of the trenches, the freezing winter rains, and endless hail of exploding shells, the men of the Guard held their ground day and night. Walter Donway is a poet and novelist living in New York City and East Hampton. In this unusual play in verse, three young soldiers, men of the Irish Guard, stand in a trench at dawn awaiting the whistle signal to attack. As they wait, they discuss what soldiers of all times have discussed: the chances of survival, the plans of the generals, the reactions of the enemy. In the next scene, in a trench at night, after the attack, their discussion turns to the fate of Ireland at the hands of the English after the war. In the final scene, at dawn the next day, they lie wounded in a shack waiting to be saved or to die fighting. As they wait, their minds turn back to the Ireland of their youth and the Ireland once of their hopes.