摘要：On 27 April 1916, Major Georges P. Vanier, who at the time was in the trenches at St-Éloi with the 22nd (French Canadian) Battalion, wrote in his diary: “On my 28th birthday, the newspapers are reporting a revolt in Dublin. Regrettable….” For the Irish, 1916 was the year of the Easter Rising, in which intellectuals encouraged the people to oppose British authority, expressed their fear of conscription, and called for Ireland’s independence. For the 22nd Battalion, 1916 was the year of the Battle of Courcelette. That battle would make the military reputation of the battalion, which was acting “… for the honour of all French Canadians [translation].”1 The nationalisms2 of two peoples who had so much in common would, that year in Europe, take opposite directions: while the Irish rebels were fighting for the right not to go to war as part of the British Empire, the 22nd Battalion was fighting as part of a quest for recognition within that same empire and its colonial army, the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF).
