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Irish politicians to be invited to Belfast for Battle of the Somme and Armistice Day ceremonies

Historic invite points to ever deepening ties

ANTOINETTE KELLY,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Monday, January 9, 2012, 8:12 AM

Updated Monday, January 9, 2012, 1:17 PM

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Photograph taken near the front-line during WWI's Battle of the Somme

Photo by Google Images

Political leaders from the Republic of Ireland will be invited to participate at a war commemoration at the Cenotaph in Belfast for the first time.

According to a report in the Belfast Telegraph this week, the unprecedented motion calling for the Irish government to join Battle of the Somme and Armistice Day ceremonies in the North was backed by all parties except Sinn Fein when it was proposed at a full meeting of Belfast City Council on Wednesday.

The proposal, the first of its kind, was submitted by nationalist representative Pat McCarthy who told the press he believed that the 'time was right' to further normalize relationships between Belfast and Dublin.

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'For a long time in the history of the Republic, that period (the First World War) was forgotten and was something which was never talked about,' the veteran Social Democratic and Labor Party (SDLP) politician told the chamber.

'But that has now changed and there are many groups which have been formed to look at the history of people from the local area who took part in the First World War. Indeed, it is to be welcomed as it is part of the complex relationships between all parts of Ireland. I think it is now time (to invite) the government in Dublin to participate at the Somme commemoration and the Remembrance Sunday ceremony here in our city.'

Under consideration is the Republic's Deputy Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore, who could be nominated to participate in the annual events in July and November.

Echoing McCarthy's sentiments, Christopher Stalford from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) seconded the motion and said: 'People from the nationalist or Home Rule background who went and fought in France were effectively written out of history, their memory was sullied.'

Sinn Fein has held a separate commemoration before the official Somme anniversary ceremony since 2002. Party heads have layed a laurel wreath at the Cenotaph two hours before the main event, an event begun by former Lord Mayor Alex Maskey during his tenure at City Hall.

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Seanmor | Nov 12, 2012, 05:08 PM EST

In late May of 1989, I happened to be vacationing in Dublin and while listening to a Befast radio station, I heard a survivor of the Ulster Division being interviewed. He told of how gallantly his fellow Ulsterman fought the Germans at the Somme, advanced and left both their flanks dangerously exposed because the British units on either flank didn't advance along with the Ulstermen. Then he said: "If Redmond's men had beeen on our flanks, we would have held on the the ground that we gained". Redmond's men were mostly Irish Catholics who also fought for G.B. when Ireland was still a single political entity - under British rule. The Ulster veteran of the Somme voiced his displeasure with the British forces of his flanks, but spoke favorably of his fellow Irishmen who had been organized by John Redmont, the leader of the Irish Parliamentery Party who tried to use diplomatic means in his quest for the independence of the Irish nation. independence for

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IrelandNorth | Jan 11, 2012, 08:22 AM EST

If the thousands of Redmonite Irish National(?) Volunteers who were slaughtered as cannon fodder by the British Empire in the Abrahamic aberration that was WWI had stayed and fought with Pearse and Connolly, we would have had full Irish freedom almost a century ago. Instead of fighting for the right of small nations to exist when their own wasn't afforded the same privilege. "At the going down of the sun and at its coming up. We shall remember them." (Funny. I though the sun never set on the British Empire?) But will we remember the reasons for the war that didn't end all wars, as Caoimhin1937 rightly points out. Wreckless military misadventurism by Europes egotistical monarchs, who now consititute the macro empire trading as the EU. The best honour for the denationalised volunteers of 1914-1916-1918 would be a reunited Ireland, instead of the repitition compulsion of poppy wreath laying at countless cenotaphs around the world.

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Pittsburghkid | Jan 09, 2012, 08:45 PM EST

Thank the Catholic Mothers of Northern Ireland. They did what IRA bomb couldn't. Why are the Protestants being so nice? Population. Those Catholic Mother keep producing. Could being Pro-life be causing this? Abortion destroys cultures. Look at America, and the UK.

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Caoimhin1937 | Jan 09, 2012, 01:57 PM EST

After the Somme came the Treaty of Versaille. After the Treaty of Versaille came the Nazis. After that the Nazis were defeated on the Eastern front. After that came the Korean war. After that came Vietnam war. After that came the Iraqi war. After that came the Afghanistan war. After that came Frau Merkel. After that we lost our sovereignty again.

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