A long long way: Chapter by chapter

The Beginning of Willie 

Willie is born and grows up, he is not tall enough to be a police officer, and so is a disappointment to his father. He meets and falls in love with Gretta. 

Key characters:

• Willie Dunne 
• James Dunne 
• Maud, Annie and Dolly Dunne 
• Gretta Lawlor
• Mr Lawlor 

Key significances:

• Father figures
• Women 

The Beginning of the End 

Willie signs up to go to war (as he couldn't be a policeman). Initially he feels proud of what he is doing, but when they reach the front he feels more confused and scared.

Key characters:

• Willie Dunne 
• Christy Moran 
• Captain Pasley
• John Williams 
• Joe Clancy

Key signifcances:

• Pity of war
• Slaughter
• Youth

First experiences 

Willie and his friends have their first experience of the trenches, though no fighting happens. Captain Pasley appears and looks over the parapet. They have to go out and mend the barbed wire. 

Key characters:

• Willie Dunne 
• John Williams 
• Joe Clancy
• Christy Moran 
• Captain Pasley

Key significances:

• Youth
• Slaughter
• Pity of war
• Friendship
• Duty

The First Gas attack

Time in reserve, the men swim in the river together. Then they are back in the trenches. There is a gas attack (not known what it was at the time) Christy Moran orders all to fall back. Pasley stays. Heavy losses ensue, Willie is devasated and does not understand why they all had to die.

Key characters:

• Willie Dunne 
• Christy Moran & Captain Pasley
• Joe Clancy, Joe McNulty, John Williams 

Key significances:

• Duty
• Friendship & Love & Compassion & Pity of war
• Suffering & Mental Trauma & Injury 
• Guilt & Grief 
• Slaughter & Horror 
• Heroism & Bravery 

Pete, Willie and the Prostitute

While on leave, Pete and Willie visit a prostitute, Willie imagines she is Gretta. Back in the trenches a new recruit is shot and left to bleed, Willie imagines if he were a horse he would not have been left to suffer.

Key characters:

• Willie Dunne 
• Pete O'Hara
• Prostitute 
• Unamed soldier 

Key significances:

• Women 
• Memory
• Friendship
• Love 
• Suffering 

Willie is welcomed home warmly

Willie returns home on leave for the first time. Willie thinks about his father's role in the lockout. His father then bathes him, making him feel safe. He goes and sees Gretta and asks her to marry him, she declines (they must wait until the war is over). They have sex.

Key characters:

• Willie Dunne 
• James Dunne 
• Maud, Annie & Dolly Dunne 
• Gretta Lawlor

Key significances: 

• Women
• Heroism 

Rebellion, Revolution and Confusion in Dublin

A man drops his bible into Willie's pisspot, Willie offers his own bible but the stranger reacts violently. Eventually the man introduces himself as Jesse Kriwan. Willie worries for the new recruits. They are caught up in the Easter Rising and are required to shoot the attackers. One republican is shot and Willie goes to comfort him, the unnamed boy dies, his blood goes with Willie to Belgium. Willie doesn't understand what has happened. 

Key characters:

• Willie Dunne 
• Jesse Kirwan 
• Unnamed republican

Key significances:

• Duty
• Attitudes to the enemy
• Responsibility of leadership
• Compassion

The Second Gas attack

Willie returns to the Front and tries to explain what happend in Dublin. There is little symapthy for the rebels. They are warned to expect a gas attack. Father Buckley says a prayer with the men, Sheridan gives a speech. The gas attack happens (some men have not fitted their masks correctly) followed by a German attack, Willie 'kills' a German.

Key characters:

• Willie Dunne 
• Christy Moran 
• Father Buckley
• The German

Key significances:

• Suffering & Male brutality
• Attitudes to the enemy & Responsibilities of leadership
• Goodness and conscience 
• Memory 
• Mental trauma & Injury

HQ horror

Willie is sent to report on the gas attack to HQ. Everything is very nice etc. Meet Major Stokes who proceeds to insult Willie and the Irish in general. Messages arrive that suggest a majority of those in the attack have been wounded or killed. Willie returns to the front and buries his German. 

Key characters:

• Willie Dunne 
• Major Stokes
• The German

Key significances:

• Duty
• Authority

Baths and an impromptu concert

The men are relieved and take a long bath followed by a concert. Christy Moran thinks of his wife, who had been injured and so he enlisted, he cannot live with the pity of seeing her and comparing her to before the accident. But he fears the men will laught at his story. 

Key characters:

• Willie Dunne 
• Christy Moran

Key significances:

• Friendship

Indirect Dublin disruption

Willie recieves a letter from his father and the men read the newspaper about the execution of the rebellion leaders in Ireland. The men are shocked, Pete and Willie agree the executions were wrong. Willie writes to his father expressing this view. 

Key characters:

• Willie Dunne 
• Pete O'Hara

Key significances:

• Attitudes to the home front 
• Attitudes to the enemy 

Bible exchange

There is more confusion and division over events in Ireland and about the war. Father Buckley visiits Willie and shares that Jesse is being court martialled and is refusing to talk to anyone but Willie. Jesse shares why he will not fight, Willie tries to dissuade him, it is hopeless so Willie gives him his bible. 

Key characters:

• Willie Dunne 
• Father Buckley
• Jesse Kirwan

Key significances:

• Friendship & Compassion 
• Duty 
• Suffering & Grief 
• Attitude to the home front 
• Bravery & Heroism

Pete O'Hara's story

Jesse is executed by firing squad, at his funeral Father Buckley shares Jesse's sad background. Willie shares his upset with Pete. Who then tells him a story about a mutilated girl they had found early in the war. They tried to help her then they were attacked, after the attack one of his company rapes the woman while Pete held her down. Willie is disgusted. Pete attempts to justify it. 

Key characters:

• Willie Dunne 
• Pete O'Hara
• Father Buckley

Key significances: 

• Male brutality & Horror & Military discipline 
• Women & Love & Compassion 
• Youth 
• Goodness and conscience 
• Guilt 

Over the top

The men are sent back to the trenches in hope they can push on further. They cross non man's land which is littlered with dismembered bodies. They must then go over the top, Captain Sheridan is shot but they continue, they engage in hand to hand combat with the Germans. They win and are called heroes. They do not feel like heroes.

Key characters:

• Willie Dunne 
• Captain Sheridan 

Key significances: 

• Suffering & Mental trauma
• Duty
• Slaughter & Horror 
• Heroism & Bravery 
• Friendship

A father's anger and a boxing match

Willie recieves a letter from Maud stating he has upset his father over his opinion of the rebellion. Willie doesn't understand. Willie thinks there are a lot of new faces. Joe Kielty tells him why he joined up (White Feather campaign). Willies goes to bed feeling depressed by the war. 

Key characters:

• Willie Dunne
• Joe Kielty

Key significances:

• Father figure
• Memories of the home front 

An English education or the arrival of Timmy Weekes 

They return to the trenches, their numbers increased by new, non-Irish, recuruits. Timmy Weekes is one of these, he introduces them to literature, a new commander as well. It is bitterly cold. Willie goes to confession and confesses sex with the prostitute and confusion over his father. 

Key characters:

• Willie Dunne 
• Timmy Weekes
• Father Buckley

Key significances:

• Goodness and conscience 
• Friendship

The Battle of Messines and a royal visit

They go to the front line ready for the batte of Messines. Christy Moran tells them the story of his wife (she burned her hands and they needed the money), the soldiers react with sympathy. The men go over the top, Christy Moran takes out a machine gun post. Willie is left alone, Biggs is killed. A few weeks later Christy Moran is awarded a medal, Willie goes away on training and they are visited by the king.

Key characters:

• Willie Dunne 
• Christy Moran

Key significances:

• Male brutality 
• Women 
• Heroism 

Buckley bites the dust

News Willie Redmond has been killed upsets them all. It rains heavily and the bombardment continues. They discuss the futility of war. They go over the top in appaling conditions and manage to reach their objective. When they return to their starting trench they find Father Buckley has been killed in the Aid-post. This surprises Willie who though he saw him in no man's land. Willie is told he has been granted home leave, he then gives Willie his medal for luck.

Key characters:

• Willie Dunne 
• Christy Moran

Key significances:

• Memory & Guilt & Grief & Duty 
• Friendship & Compassion
• Male brutality
• Responsibilities of leadership
• Father figures 
• Injury 

A loss of love 

Willie is on home leave, his sisters are happy to see him. His father isn't he berates Willie for sympathising with the rebels (taking it as a personal offense), and refuses to listen to Willie's explanation. Willie leaves. He goes to Gretta. She is at her home feeding a baby, it belongs to her and her husband. She recieved an anonymous letter saying Willie had slept with a prostitute. Willie is devastated that he has lost her and spends the night in a hostel. 

Key characters:

• Willie Dunne 
• James Dunne 
• Gretta Lawlor

Key significances:

• Father figure
• Attittudes from the home front 
• Memory & Bravery & Duty
• Love & Friendship & Compassion
• Horror & Suffering

Meeting Captain Pasley's parents 

On his way to meeting Pasley's parents Willie is spat at by some boys who think his is English. Mrs & Mr Pasley are glad to meet Willie and see how much their son meant to someone. When Willie leaves only Dolly truly says goodbye.

Key characters:

• Willie Dunne
• Mr & Mrs Pasley

Key significances:

• Friendship & Father figures 
• Goodness and conscience 
• Pity of the war
• Grief & Guilt 
• Slaughter & Horror 

Attack, Confessions and Injury

Back at the front, Willie turns 21. Willie discusses the anonymous letter sent to Gretta with Pete. The men begin to anticipate an attack and are anxious. The Germans attack and they pull back into a wood. Pete is injured and admits that he sent the letter as revenge for Willie's reaction to his story. Wille is angry. The next day Willie is hit by a shell and when he wakes up he hullicinates.

Key characters:

• Willie Dunne 
• Pete O'Hara

Key significances: 

• Suffering & Suffering & Mental trauma
• Friendship
• Guilt 

A loss of faith in the hospital 

Willie is in hospital suffering from shell shock. He recieves a letter from Christy Moran expalining his situation and that Timmy is dead. An officer comes to speak to Willie, telling him there will never be home rule in Ireland. As Willie's wounds heal it is discovered Christy Moran's medal is burned into his skin. Willie asks for a nurse to hug him, she reluctantly agrees. He is cured. Despite this he has lost faith in everything. 

Key characters:

• Willie Dunne 
• The Nurse

Key significances:

• Mental trauma & Injury 
• Women 
• Attitudes to the enemy 
• Youth & Pity of war

The End of Willie 

Willie returns to his regiment, although with very few Irishmen, he is actually looking forward to being back on the front. In summer 1918 it is discovered that Major Stokes had hung himself (citing the stresses of the war). Willie reflects that he now understands Jesse. Willie hears a German singing 'silent night' and sings back to him, he is shot. Joe Kielty catches him. Willie is buried and his personal belongings, including an apologetic letter from his father are returned home.  

Key characters:

• Willie Dunne 
• Major Stokes 
• Joe Kielty & Christy Moran

Key significances:

• Pity of the war
• Duty & Responsibilities of leadership
• Attitudes to the enemy 
• Slaughter