This is the story of men from either side of West Belfast's sectarian divide during the Great War. Richard S. Grayson follows the volunteers of the 36th and 16th divisions who fought on the Somme and side-by-side at Messines, recovering the forgotten West Belfast men throughout the armed forces, from the retreat at Mons to the defeat of Germany and life post-war. In so doing, he tells a new story which challenges popular perceptions of the war and explains why remembrance remains so controversial in Belfast today.

Richard S. Grayson is Professor of Twentieth Century History at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK. His previous publications include books on interwar British political history and contemporary British politics, along with other work on Ireland and the First World War. He was co-editor of Irish Political Studies in 2010-12 and co-edits www.irelandww1.org. His great-uncle, from Lurgan, Co Armagh, served and died (in September 1915) on the Western Front in the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles.

1. Civil War? \ 2. Volunteers and Reserves \ 3. The British Expeditionary Force, 1914-15 \ 4. The Nature of War \ 5. Gallipoli and the Eastern Front \ 6. Arrivals and Executions \ 7. The Ulster Division on the Somme \ 8. The Other Somme \ 9. On and On \ 10. Messines \ 11. Mud \ 12. Retreat \ 13. Victory \ 14. Peace and Partition \ 15. Remembrance \ 16. Appendix: Methods and Patterns of 'Military History from the Street'