Ministers mark end of First World War
Junior Government ministers are attending events in Europe to mark the exact 90th anniversary of the ending of the First World War.
Minister of State Martin Mansergh is today officiating at Armistice Day ceremonies at West Flanders in Belgium while junior Foreign Affairs minister Dick Roche represented the Government at commemorations in Douaumont, France, this morning.
EU leaders and surviving veterans are gathering at other famous battle sites while smaller memorials were held in towns and villages across countries that took part in the 1914-1918 war.
The events are marking the Armistice or ceasefire which was signed on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918.
War historian John Wort, who has helped establish a multi-memorial Garden of Remembrance in Thurles, believes the bravery of Irish soldiers is finally being recognised after decades of indifference.
“Irish men were fighting for the British in the First World War while we were under occupation by them – so that was always going to be controversial and divide people’s opinions,” he said.
“But thankfully we have all moved on from that now.
“It is a sign of maturity of a nation that we can finally remember our war dead – because they were all Irish citizens, no matter what side they fought on, and for those who died, it brought generations of grief and sadness to families.”
St Mary’s Garden of Remembrance in Thurles has a memorial to local Thurles men who died in the First World War.
It also accommodates monuments to nine Irish soldiers killed in the Niemba ambush in the Congo in November 1960 and to all Irish UN peacekeeping casualties.
Another memorial remembers gardaí who lost their lives in the line of duty.
A special Lebanese mosaic plaque commemorates assassinated former prime minister of Lebanon Rafic Harriri .
Last Sunday, a plaque was unveiled to the memory of the four-man crew of an Irish Air Corps helicopter that crashed into sand dunes in Tramore, Co Waterford in 1999.
