At the heart of this remarkable novel is the dilemma which increasingly faced many Irishmen during the latter stages of World War 1 – divided loyalties. Willie Dunne is a Catholic Ulsterman whose father, as a policeman, is a conservative loyalist. As war with Germany begins, Willie, being too short to follow his father’s footsteps into the police force, enlists with the Royal Dublin Fusiliers to fight for the allied cause. Initially Willie sees the absolute moral correctness of the path he has chosen to take and identifies war-mongering Germany a sinister, clearly defined enemy. Gradually, however, Willie and his comrades learn of fomenting insurrection in his native Ireland. The rebels, whose aim is home rule, are accused of exploiting the uncertain and parlous state of a nation at war: “England’s difficulty was Ireland’s opportunity.” The advocates for Home Rule flex their muscles, only to have the loyalist forces crush this rebellion brutally. Rather quell the growing unrest by reacting with a reasonable and measured response, the authorities instead clumsily fan the flames by over-reacting with blundering brutality and witness the conflagration of civil disobedience that ensues as a result. From the trenches in Belgium Willie learns that several of his countrymen had been executed for their part in the uprising. By this time many of those who had volunteered to enlist with Willie regard their allegiances misplaced, with confusion and in some cases hostility towards the Allied conflict being voiced more openly. Moreover, several of the English commanding Officers expressed their contempt and animosity toward all Irish soldiers, referring to them in disparaging terms as feckless and cowardly, and as such far more expendable than their English counterparts.

Willie is as innocent abroad as he is naïve at home, and not blessed with great powers of self-expression. His initial moral certainty and simplistic, unfocused idealism is replaced with ambivalence about the rights and wrongs of the war he is directly involved in and the corresponding developments in Ireland. The reader here is subtly led to question just how nebulous the concept of enemy is. Are Willie’s enemies The German Army; the haughty and sneering English; or his own countrymen, be they Nationalists or Republicans?

This inherent inconsistency is personified by Jesse Kirwan, who though a peripheral character, articulates the dilemma facing the Irish soldiers. Jesse takes a principled stand against the executions at home. As an intelligent young man he is able to express with eloquence the moral conundrum facing his fellow Irishmen. Do they continue to risk their lives for a cause and values which many of them do not share or reflect their political aspirations, while those who do share those aims are being executed by at home as traitors? This turmoil also reaches Willie’s own family. If Jesse represents rebellion, and Willie represents ambivalence, then Willie’s father is an embodiment of intransigent conservative values. The previously loving and reciprocal relationship between becomes fractious as the elder Mr Dunne accuses his son of treachery for expressing sympathy for the freedom fighters shot by their own countryman. Later, of course, the reconciliation between father becomes as impossible to grasp and hold on to as the mustard gas that had tormented his comrades.

The irony is, of course, that Willie is essentially apolitical. Having led an insular life Willie had never, prior to the war, left Ireland. At the onset of war he had accepted the crude propaganda fed him of the Germans as demonic inhuman brutes. Crucially, Willie is by nature compassionate and feels empathy for individuals rather than the causes they espouse. Moreover, Willie does not always fully understand the complexities of events unfolding before his eyes. Battle lines become drawn and firmly entrenched between the Nationalists and the Loyalists, but not particularly for Willie.

A conceit that runs through the novel is the humanising and unifying effect music has on the emotionally vulnerable and battle weary soldiers. Against the backdrop of filth, exploding bombs, waist deep ubiquitous mud and the threat of foul, choking mustard gas, Willie and his comrades experience a minor euphoria as a makeshift band strike up an Irish jig. The unrelenting mentally destabilising horrors the soldiers face each day prove as difficult to shake off as the lice that feed off them. However, on several instances throughout the novel music does provide relief and escape of a sort.

Willie, whilst home on sick leave, finds his beloved Dublin fractured and divisive. Greta’s rejection of him had achieved what the horrors of war could not: broken his spirit, albeit temporarily. But once again his decency reasserts itself: he no longer feels enmity towards the comrade who had betrayed him. Against the literal and metaphorical carnage surrounding him, Willie finds peace within himself. Ultimately, and despite the tear-inducing conclusion, the novel ends as a triumph of the human spirit. Willie’s legacy is not his bravery or contribution to the war effort. His decency is.

A Long Long Way is a remarkable achievement.