And because our family commemorates our Donegal forebears today we stand in remembrance of the Irish Fallen.
And acknowledge Great Uncle Patrick and Great Uncle William’s sacrifice at Ieper.
That we observe the British day of Remembrance on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month is an acknowledgment.
Of the world clock then when the guns fell silent.
What came afterwards in Ireland we all know now but did not then.
A United front
But recruits either Southern Catholics fighting for Catholic Belgium or Northern Protestants fighting against Catholic Austria battled and died by each others’ side.
The tales of which I discovered for myself along with my Great-Uncle’s gravestone in Flanders.
On a GTI Travel WWI, Flanders and The Somme trip where I laid a wreath at the Menin Gate in Ieper.
An Irish solution
As a country, the Republic has marked their day of remembrance since 1986.
On the Sunday nearest 11 July at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin.
The anniversary of the date in 1921 that a truce was signed ending the Irish War of Independence.
Ireland’s progression through that conflict, its civil war, out of Empire.
And through The Troubles and the Good Friday Agreement has arrived at that date and this point.
And its relationship or non-relationship with the poppy.
Lest we forget
It has come to signify for Irish nationalists and patriots British rule in Ireland.
And Remembrance Sunday’s dedication to all those British and Commonwealth victims of wars shines a light.
On its army’s residency in Northern Ireland during The Troubles.
And particularly the Paras’ part in Bloody Sunday in Derry.
Commemorations of the November Remembrance Sunday today concentrate on the Six Counties of unionist Northern Ireland.
For those wishing to mark the memories of the 35,000 Irishmen who fell during World War in the south.
Then an ecumenical service was held in St Patrick’s Cathedral today, which has been attended by the President every year since 1993.
And where a prayer was said for all 35,000 Irishmen who died in WWI, my great-uncles among them, in remembrance of the Irish Fallen
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