LAST OF THE BARDS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 96, 16 January 1918, Page 3

LAST OF THE BARDS

WITH IRISH BRIGADE

PIPING INTO ACTION

Our brigade being an Irish one of some repute, each battalion cutne out to France equipped with tho Irish war pipes, which played furiously ~.as we marched through the town and village when on tho trek, and provoked the fear and admiration of all tho Fiench population from four years eld j-nd upwards. The first big offensive in which the brigade took part played havoc with the men whose militarv/.training and courngo fitted them to? blow tho ancestral pipes of Finn, the son of Cumal and his Fina, and only a remnant tvas left in Israel who could produce the warlike strains of old (wrote "R. M'." in the "Manchester Guardian").

Still the ancient minstrelsy was rot allowed to die out altogether. When all that was left of the brigade, mustering about 800 strong, was drawn up in n> hollow square and harangued ly the army commander, the divisional band of soft-tongued, brazen instruments was brought upon the scene; but the surviving pipers brought their weapons as well, and in the dispute fir precedence which'ensued the pipes pievailed over the cymbals, and the ciivisional band was compelled to take a back seat when tho brigade finally marched past and saluted the n.c.o.'s and men who had been newly decorated. The pipers, about four or live in number, in place of tho former 16 or 17, took the lead, and it was to the skirl of "Tho Wearing of tho Green" that we marched back to billets, thinking of the phantom army that once kept step with us to tho same strains, tut now lay still and silent for ever.

Almost the only surviving piper in our battalion was Lance-corporal Rogan, who now became pipe-major, and proceeded to re-form the nucleus of a band. Aged anything between 40 and 60, ruddy of countenance and untrammelled by the fetish of teetotalism, Rogan had a generous share of the [ Boliemianism traditional to his p:ofession. He had a keen wit, loved all the girls in the estaminets with an impartial if shifting affection, and was fully conscious of all the glory and dignity involved in his position when lie piped at the head of his battalion. To Death or Clory. It was a spectacle of military splendour to see A Company marching off to death or glory in the trenches v/itli Rogan and iiie acolytes blowing and drumming at their head. Brady, the wit of the mess, once said it was more liko the travelling circus making its annual entry into Drumfarnham, but then Brady was a man painfully lacking in military perspective. Fitzgerald, the company commander, would r;areh with tho first platoon immediately behind the baud, with a pack half the size of a house en his shoulders, and haversack,' field, glasses, and revoker suspended from his belt. Mullan, the : mess cook, carrying two saucepans and : a kitten, in addition to his pack and ! rifle, would be in the rear, and the I intervening space would be taken up j with warriors whose military calling was for the moment somewhat obscuri cd by the amount of domestic apparatus which an absence of two or threo weeks from the billet made it incumbent on them to carry. As we marched through a ruined village where another unit was billeted, old Irish stiffs would rush out from nook and corner with tears in their eyes. Scots, for which Rogau had a supremo contempt, would wave thoir bonnets in admiring applause, and A Company's first platoon would gradually crawl on its sorrowful way towards the communication trench, where they parted company with the band. Rogan's Fiddle. \ But, if wo may uso a musical metaphor, Eogan had other strings to his bow besides the pipes. When we were on the trelc one of his faithful satellites, a slight youth, an orphan from an industrial school, might be seen carrying a black violin case boncath his pack. This was Rogan's fiddle, and, after the true bardic fashion, it was borne for him by an orphan boy. At all company entertainments Rogan and his fiddle played a conspicuous part. ]f there was a "spread" at the officers' mess the strains of the fiddle could be heard heforo the clatter of the plates 'in tho kitchen had died away; and as Soon as the cloth wae removed Rogan, often accompanied by some chosen songsters from the ranks, would bo introduced to the mess, and an impromptu concert, sometimes followed by an even more impromptu dance, would follow. When in due season it cam© the turn of our division to go over _ the top afaiu, Rogan was most anxious to go over with the boys andp play them on to victory. But there was only one Rogan in the battalion, and to hie great grief the 'brder came that he must stay behind and play the troops buck from battle, though not actually into it. For many days before zero hour was due Rogan was disconsolate, and when on the night prior to the advance he said good-bye to all the boys who were going up into position he was noticed to be filled with a melancholy which frequent potations of smuggled nun could dispel.

v Over the Top. But a strange thing happened when A Company started on their journey over the top the next morning—the journey that was to break up the old company for ever and leave it as shattered arid mangled as the remains of Arras Cathedral. The din of- the barrage was all but deafening, and men soon began to fall from the Boche machine-gun bullets, ■which whistled with an ominous sound. But over and above all tho row something like a shriek caught Fitzgerald's ear. He glanced back. There as though he had fallen from the clouds, was Eogan, following a few paces behind him, with a rifle slung over his shoulder and the pipss clasped firmly in his arms. He had crept into the trenches after the last company the night before, found his way up to A Company's lino,, where tho men had been only too glad to conceal him in a dug-out, and in the end he got his wish ami wont over the top with tho boys. Eogan and his pipes became-a casualty before many minutes, .but both were subsequently patched up and borne from the field on the same stretcher. After a great struggle litzeerald eventually obtained for Eogan a French decoration, which ho persuaded Rocan was only awarded to men of ureat musical talent, and to-day tho lance-corporal bard has a comfortable job at'the base depot, where the strains of his fiddle may still be heard as of old. Aβ for the pipes, lie has pinned a gift stripe on the bag to show that they have been wounded, and when a draft for the old brigade marches down to the siding Rogan and his pipes are always there to play them off Ho is at present reported to be engaged in composing an appropriate etting on tho pipes for that fine .old Irieli tune "Aproß.la Giiorro Fraie. Wo all of us wish him luck with it.