Daniel Desmond Sheehan

“ Half an hour in their trenches and all was over. Dug-outs and all were done for. Of the eight officers, four were casualties, two, unhappily, killed, and two severely wounded, of whom one was Lieutenant Batten-Pooll.
Next day at the little cemetery behind our lines I saw the remnant of the raiders paying their last tribute of respect to those who had died that liberty and love and all happiness may live. Could those simple , silent, tender men who stood beside the rude graves be the fierce fighters who carried all before them in a mad and daredevil charge a few hours before? ”

“ While our men were out in No Man’s Land at the point of assembly, our artillery, at a given moment, belched forth such a fury of shot and shell as I have never seen before .. I have seen worse since, but this was the beginning of those great demonstrations of our artillery superiority which will finally, more than anything else, determine the issue in this war.
To hark back. Our men got into the enemy’s trenches with irresistible dash. They met with a stout resistance. There was no stopping or stemming the dash of the men of Munster. They rushed the Germans off their feet. ”

“ Indeed, the most deadly instrument of destruction in this encounter was the short, heavy bludgeon in the shape of a shillelagh, the use of which, we are led to believe, is the prescriptive and hereditary right of all Irishmen. ”