News / ‘Fantastic’ response to WWI legacy plans
SCHOOL pupils in Shetland are being invited to get involved in an ambitious project to commemorate the legacy of the First World War.
Montreal-born freelance journalist Kenneth Asch was in the islands on Monday to gauge interest in his plans to put together a programme of words, music and commentary to mark the centenary of the conflict.
Students based in various communities involved in the war will rehearse before visiting sites of special significance on the Western Front such as the Somme, Ypres, Verdun and, of particular relevance to Shetland, Gallipoli.
This August it will be 100 years since the outbreak of the deadly four year conflict which saw more than nine million combatants lose their lives.
Asch, who performed as an opera singer for many years, hopes the project may even culminate in a performance at a grand venue such as the Royal Albert Hall or the original Olympic Stadium in Athens.
He aims to find groups of four or five students to perform poetry and would visit Shetland to help them rehearse before travelling to one of the sites for a performance.
“At the end of the whole process, in 2019, hopefully there could be one final mass gathering of as many students as I can possibly fit into one venue for a final kind of celebration of this commemoration,” he said.
“That venue could be, theoretically, let’s say, the Royal Albert Hall, or the original Olympic Stadium in Athens, or one of the United Nations venues at Geneva [or] Vienna, for example.”
While in Shetland, Asch visited the Anderson high school and Sandwick junior high, along with Shetland Islands Council’s education department and Shetland Arts. The response, he said, had been “fantastic”.
Though he did not have time to visit every school, other secondary departments with an interest can get in touch with Maurice Mullay, who helped coordinate the visit, on 07788 440388.
Asch said he conceived the idea after hearing about the UK government’s plans for a “home front legacy” project.
The department for media, culture and sport (DMCS) intends to take school pupils to places of significance in relation to the First World War.
His project seeks to take that “one step further” by getting the youngsters to examine the relationship between words and history.
Asch wants to avoid direct mention of the catastrophic conflict if possible – instead focusing on “expressions of the human condition which lead us to understand why people go to war”.
The DCMS has endorsed his project and he hopes government and local authority sponsorship will be available to help cover the cost of pupils’ travel.
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