Today we continue the narrative and consider the events of September 4, 1916. Next morning there was a short march over the brow of a hill and down into a valley still nearer to the front line. It was a great change from the trench life of the past six months, since at Loos for days one never saw a soul overground and all guns were carefully hidden But here …
WWI
September 4, 2023
The above image was published in an Irish newspaper at the end of 1916. The priest is unidentified, but we can well imagine Fr Willie in this situation. The picture represents a scene from 2nd September 1916. Fr Doyle and his men had to suddenly march to the front one night in September 1916 alright, but it was on the evening of the 3rd and not of the 2nd. Before …
September 3, 2023
The following praise for Fr Willie appeared in the Glasgow Weekly News on 1 September 1917. It was written by a Belfast Orangeman. Given the source, this was high praise indeed! Fr Doyle’s attractive spirit and his care for others crossed all boundaries and social classes. Given his care for others, and their reverence for him, it can truly be said that Fr Doyle is a role model of ecumenism. …
September 2, 2023
The following was written about Fr Doyle by Sir Percival Phillips, the famous war correspondent, and appeared in the Daily Express on this day in 1917. The Orangemen will not forget a certain Roman Catholic chaplain who lies in a soldier’s grave in that sinister plain beyond Ypres. He went forward and back over the battle field with bullets whining about him, seeking out the dying and kneeling in the …
August 22, 2023
On this day in 1917, 4 days after Fr Willie’s death, Fr Frank Browne, the famous photographer and Jesuit military chaplain, wrote the following in a letter expressing his esteem for him. Fr Browne worked closely with Fr Willie, and these words come from the pen of one who knew him intimately. All during these last months he was my greatest help, and to his saintly advice, and still more …
August 20, 2023
My Martyrdom for Mary’s Sake. Darling Mother Mary, in preparation for the glorious martyrdom which I feel assured thou art going to obtain for me, I, thy most unworthy child, on this the first day of thy month, solemnly commence my life of slow martyrdom by earnest hard work and constant self-denial. With my blood I promise thee to keep this resolution, do thou, sweet Mother, assist me and obtain for …
August 16, 2023
The feast of the Assumption was an important date for Fr Willie. He made his religious vows on this day in 1893, and always felt that that Our Lady obtained special graces for him on this day. Perhaps our Blessed Mother will have special graces in store for us as well today? Here is his account of Mary’s protection on August 15th, 1916 (a year before his death) during one …
August 15, 2023
Today we have the last of Fr Doyle’s narratives from his letters home to his father in August 1917, less than a week before his death. In this entry in his letter we see his close brush with death in the form of a shell landing very close to him. Close beside us I had found the remains of a dug-out which had been blown in the previous day and …
August 11, 2023
We return today to Fr Willie’s narrative, and get some glimpse of the horror of war, and the comfort that the presence of a priest can bring to the dying. Today’s quote is amongst the most moving from all of Fr Willie’s letters. Of particular note is his reference to Pontius Pilate presenting Jesus to the crowd after the scourging with the words: “Ecce homo” (Behold the Man)… These events …
August 10, 2023
Continuing our narrative today, it is hard not to be struck by the extraordinary good humour of Fr Willie. The “cathedral” to which he refers was, of course, just another dug out or shell hole somewhere in a battlefield. His final comment about being glad not to be asked to say the rosary with bombs falling around him is classic Irish wit. It is important to remember that these letters …
August 8, 2023