{"id":1331,"date":"2025-11-11T14:00:55","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T14:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/litgreatwarf25.themanger.net\/?p=1331"},"modified":"2025-11-11T17:31:48","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T17:31:48","slug":"were-here-because-were-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/litgreatwarf25.themanger.net\/?p=1331","title":{"rendered":"We&#8217;re Here Because We&#8217;re Here"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The feeling of entrapment, and realization that the suffering of the war was without larger purpose, is captured in a popular song from the war:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-9-16 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u201cWe&#039;re Here Because We&#039;re Here\u201d World War I Song\" width=\"493\" height=\"876\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6HKVGUxXQeg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>On July 1, 2016, close to 1500 volunteers, each representing one British man who had been killed on that day 100 years earlier, deployed literally silently around England, moving through modern spaces as a reminder of the presence of those dead. The video below is from Manchester, England that day. I really encourage you to watch the whole thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"we\u2019re here because we\u2019re here (Manchester)\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JDyqax78Z_M?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>This is the caption to the video on YouTube:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u2018we\u2019re here because we\u2019re here\u2019 was a modern memorial to mark the centenary of the Battle of the Somme, in which around 1500 voluntary participants dressed in First World War uniform appeared unexpectedly in locations across the UK. Commissioned by 14-18 NOW (the UK\u2019s arts programme for the First World War centenary) and created by Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller in collaboration with Rufus Norris (Director of the National Theatre), each participant represented an individual soldier who was killed on 1 July 1916. The work was partly inspired by tales of sightings during and after the First World War by people who believed they had seen a dead loved one. Covering the width and breadth of the UK, from Shetland to Penzance, participants took to the streets from 7am-7pm, visiting shopping centres, train stations, beaches, car parks and high streets to serve as a reminder to all they encountered of the 19,240 men who were killed 100 years ago the same day; the first day of the Battle of the Somme. The event stopped commuters in their tracks, with many moved to tears, and images flooded social media alongside passionate responses to the sightings of soldiers in over 900 public places across the UK. A YouGov poll indicated that 63% of the population were aware of the soldiers, including over 2 million people who saw the soldiers on the streets. The event trended on Twitter for over 14 hours and achieved exceptional media coverage, uniting all mainstream media from the Daily Telegraph to the Daily Mirror in positive coverage. There were 190 million impressions on social media, over 94,000 posts mentioning \u2018we are here\u2019 were created and TV and press coverage of the project reached an estimated 31 million people. we\u2019re here because we\u2019re here in the North West was led by the Royal Exchange Theatre (Manchester) in partnership with Bolton Octagon, LeftCoast (Blackpool), Oldham Coliseum and Storyhouse (Chester).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The feeling of entrapment, and realization that the suffering of the war was without larger purpose, is captured in a popular song from the war: On July 1, 2016, close to 1500 volunteers, each representing one British man who had &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/litgreatwarf25.themanger.net\/?p=1331\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5,321,24,327,326,325],"class_list":["post-1331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-doing-your-bit","tag-ghosts","tag-if-you-need-me-ill-be-out-by-the-trees-crying-about-the-little-recruit","tag-remembrance","tag-silence-please","tag-were-here-because"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/litgreatwarf25.themanger.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/litgreatwarf25.themanger.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/litgreatwarf25.themanger.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/litgreatwarf25.themanger.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/litgreatwarf25.themanger.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1331"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/litgreatwarf25.themanger.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1342,"href":"https:\/\/litgreatwarf25.themanger.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1331\/revisions\/1342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/litgreatwarf25.themanger.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/litgreatwarf25.themanger.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/litgreatwarf25.themanger.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}