The Child Left Behind. Anne Bennett

       ONE

      Finn Sullivan couldn’t understand his family. They had been aware of the rumblings of an unsettled Europe and so why were they surprised when Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914? When the news filtered through to them, via the postman, in their cottage in Donegal, Finn’s eldest brother, Tom, went to Buncrana, their nearest town, and bought a paper so that they could read all about it.

      ‘England has declared war on Germany because they invaded two other countries,’ he said as the family sat eating their midday meal.

      ‘Well, if that’s about the strength of it,’ his father, Thomas John, remarked, ‘it’s a wonder that no one can see the irony.’

      ‘What do you mean?’ Finn’s brother Joe asked.

      ‘Well, isn’t that what England has done to us?’ Thomas John said. ‘They invaded us, didn’t they? Who rules Ireland now?’

      ‘Not the Irish, that’s for sure,’ Biddy, Finn’s mother replied. ‘It’s England has us by the throat.’

      ‘Aye,’ Thomas John said, ‘and that means anything that involves England automatically involves us too.’

      ‘You mean the war?’ Finn asked.

      ‘Of course I mean the war, boy. What else?’

      Finn coloured in anger. He hated being called ‘boy’ by his father now he was over eighteen.

      ‘So you think there will be call-up here?’ Joe asked.

      ‘Don’t see how we will get away without it,’ Thomas John said.

      ‘Maybe they are hoping for volunteers,’ Tom said. ‘After all, young Englishmen are volunteering in droves. The recruiting offices are hard-pressed to cope with the numbers who want to take a pop at the Germans. So the paper says, anyway.’

      ‘And

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