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David Selzer is a writer of poetry, prose fiction, screenplays and stage plays. He embraces digital platforms to share his work of more than fifty years… READ MORE
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THE ABATTOIR AT MAZINGARBE
The Last Absolution of the Munsters at Rue Du Bois, by Fortunino Mattania, depicts an event which took place on 8th May 1915, near Neuve Chapelle.
The push for Aubers Ridge had been postponed
because of rain. But the Saturday
was dry and sunny. Going up the line
in the early evening, the battalion
stood easy at the shrine to Our Lady.
‘…in remissionem peccatorum…’
By noon, next day, nearly half were dead,
caught on the German wire Haig’s ill equipped
artillery had, once more, failed to cut.
In Mazingarbe, an industrial town
ten miles south, the British commandeered
the abattoir. The first to be shot at dawn
was a Munster regular from Cork.
‘…in nomine Patris…’
Note: The poem was first published on the site in November 2012.
2 responses to “THE ABATTOIR AT MAZINGARBE”
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What a picture – although I’m sure intended to be patriotic and religious, it still manages to convey the realities of the moment – the padre on the horse holds everyone with his blessing, but the scene is anything but triumphalist.
A dawn scene [?], and a powerful link with the ‘shot at down’ theme of the second part.
As ever, your words send one away to research the background. One powerful irony is the way records of the executed have survived so one knows how they died. Death on the line is usually unrecorded and entirely nameless.
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