Tag: https://gtitravel.ie/battlefield-tours/ww1-flanders-the-somme-2/

Countries, Deals, Europe, Ireland

In remembrance of the Irish Fallen

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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

Irish memorial: GTI Battlefields Tour

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

Branching out: Where once was no-man’s land

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.

Family reunion: My Great-Uncle

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

 

 

Deals, Europe

The Best Post

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And today, Armistice Day, we are advised to repeat ourselves, so allow us to reshare the Best Post.

From Menin Gate, Ieper, where the good people of that Medieval mercantile Flemish town have been commemorating the Fallen for nearly a century.

With the laying of the wreath at the Menin Gate and the blast of the buglers’ Last Post.

This year is slightly different as a two-year repair programme is underway ahead of its centenary.

All of which will mean that they’re holding the ceremony on the lawn on the ramparts at the south side of the memorial.

We will remember them

My war hero: At Great Uncle Willie’s tombstone in Ieper

It was different, and special, too the year I was selected to present the wreath at the Gate.

On behalf of our GTI World War 1 Battlefields Tour combining Ieper with the 1916 centenary of the Battle of the Somme.

In the shared silence each of us would retreat into our own private moments and tales of those we’ve lost.

The young men of the British and Irish and Empire army who had passed through the Menin Gate on their way to combat.

The Memorial commemorates the names of over 54,000 men who died in the Ypres Salient before 16 August 1917.

And who have no known grave.

… And them

Living history: At the Somme

Now for all the Commonwealth Graves Commission will help you in your search for your relatives.

And I found a great-uncle’s in Ieper.

Too many were never found.

And memorials like the Menin Gate, and the Thiepval Memorial in France. Where 72,000 Somme soldiers are remembered, preserve the legacy.

So wherever you mark Armistice Day and this year we remember an old soldier (and father-in-law). At North Berwick Memorial, know we will remember them.