by Donal Hassett | Mar 18, 2026 | Veterans' Stories
When we recount the sweeping global history of the First World War, our collective memory is often dominated by the staggering statistics of the battlefield: the millions of artillery shells fired, the miles of trenches dug across Europe, and the incomprehensible loss...
by Donal Hassett | Jan 12, 2026 | Veterans' Stories
On the evening of August 9th 1931, leading figures from the French political, military and colonial elites gathered in the main hall of the Palais de la Porte Dorée eastern Paris to mark the closure of Veterans’ Weekend of the International Colonial Exhibition. After...
by Donal Hassett | Oct 6, 2025 | Veterans' Stories
Chiflè Seghid was born in Zagher, a village in the Hamasien region of colonial Eritrea, not far from Asmara, the capital city of Italian colony Eritrea. His date of birth is unknown, but we know that he enlisted on 18 September 1912. This date marked the beginning of...
by Donal Hassett | Sep 19, 2025 | Veterans' Stories
You can access this piece here: https://returningsoldier.co.uk/2025/09/18/no-right-to-return-or-remain-french-colonial-soldiers-and-discriminatory-demobilization/
by Donal Hassett | Mar 24, 2025 | Veterans' Stories
On the evening of 11 February 1927, the tall, gaunt figure of Lamine Senghor strode to the podium at the inaugural meeting of the League against Imperialism (LAI). The LAI was one of the interwar communist movement’s most significant attempts to forge an anti-colonial...
by Donal Hassett | Feb 18, 2025 | Veterans' Stories
In 2022, the film Tirailleurs premiered to rave reviews in France. Starring the highly regarded actor Omar Sy, the film follows a father and son from the Senegalese interior who are forcibly enrolled in the French Army in 1917 and sent to fight on the Western Front....
