Right or wrong, acknowledge sacrifice
Roy Garland
By Roy Garland The Monday Column.
27/10/08
“But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread carefully because you tread on my dreams”
– WB Yeats
On October 7, 500 members and 30 standard bearers of Irish and British ex-service persons’ associations paraded through Castlebar in county Mayo led by Castlebar Town Band.
They were followed by 100 schoolchildren while other children and citizens lined the route to give the veterans a warm welcome. When everyone had taken their seats at the Peace Park, a 107-strong guard from an Irish-speaking unit were inspected by the Republic’s President Mary McAleese who opened the event. Irish Guards, including drummers and pipers in full uniform, played military tunes in the presence of Irish, British and international dignitaries.
The Peace Park boasts a large memorial wall similar to the US Vietnam Wall and inscribed with over 1,000 names of Co Mayo service people who fell during the First World War.
An impressive array of smaller monuments commemorate those who died in the Second World War, Vietnam, Korea and in British, US, Canadian and Australian uniforms.
The previous night an Irish Guards band and a Liverpool ex-service Irish Guards Choir played and sang at a memorial concert.
This represented a further step along the road to healing memories. The previous Sunday saw a remembrance mass with a military colour party marking Ireland’s 50th anniversary of contributing troops to the UN.
Each year the Irish who fell at the Somme are also remembered at Dublin’s Islandbridge War Memorial where in 2006 the Union Flag took pride of place among the flags of the nations in that awful conflict while the Irish Tricolour flew silently overhead at half mast.
The atmosphere was both solemn and liberating as veterans proudly displayed their medals and others talked excitedly about the new spirit of freedom that enabled them to speak about relatives who fought, suffered and died at the Battle of the Somme.
Retired Irish Army Captain Donal Buckley credits former Taoiseach Sean Lemass for breaking the silence in 1966 by calling on Irish people to acknowledge these sacrifices. The call fell largely on deaf ears but the word “maturity” was on many lips at Islandbridge. People noted the large contingent from Northern Ireland representing all the major political parties.
Four years previously on a lonely hillside near Westport, Co Mayo, a new headstone was ceremoniously unveiled at the previously unmarked grave of Sergeant Major Cornelius Coughlan VC, who died in 1915. Last year a moving service was conducted in Galway’s Catholic Cathedral for those of County Galway who gave their lives in the Great War.
People throughout the island have long fought in British as well as Irish uniforms in various parts of the world. Today increasing numbers join the British army with an estimated 16 per cent of recent Northern Irish recruits being citizens of the Irish Republic. Ancient animosities are being forgotten and new relationships established throughout the islands while a new tolerance opens new horizons.
The participation of Irish people from the 26 counties in the First World War was generally ignored in the wake of 1916 but entry into the European Community and the fact that many Irish people were sick of the violence in the north is credited with having helped to change things. Many have begun to question the partial histories we have learned and various Regimental Associations throughout the island seek to preserve honourable traditions.
There is no need to judge the rightness or wrongness of any war in order to acknowledge the courage and sacrifice of youth. This should apply to the welcome home being extended to members of the Royal Irish Regiment in Belfast this weekend. Critics have every right to protest and panic-stricken reactions don’t help but relatives of lost loved ones and of returning soldiers are understandably hyper-sensitive. Their boys and girls suffered in, or have just returned from, the hell of war. We must tread carefully for we tread on their dreams.
Email roy@ irishnews.com
Roy Garland
By Roy Garland The Monday Column.
27/10/08
“But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread carefully because you tread on my dreams”
– WB Yeats
On October 7, 500 members and 30 standard bearers of Irish and British ex-service persons’ associations paraded through Castlebar in county Mayo led by Castlebar Town Band.
They were followed by 100 schoolchildren while other children and citizens lined the route to give the veterans a warm welcome. When everyone had taken their seats at the Peace Park, a 107-strong guard from an Irish-speaking unit were inspected by the Republic’s President Mary McAleese who opened the event. Irish Guards, including drummers and pipers in full uniform, played military tunes in the presence of Irish, British and international dignitaries.
The Peace Park boasts a large memorial wall similar to the US Vietnam Wall and inscribed with over 1,000 names of Co Mayo service people who fell during the First World War.
An impressive array of smaller monuments commemorate those who died in the Second World War, Vietnam, Korea and in British, US, Canadian and Australian uniforms.
The previous night an Irish Guards band and a Liverpool ex-service Irish Guards Choir played and sang at a memorial concert.
This represented a further step along the road to healing memories. The previous Sunday saw a remembrance mass with a military colour party marking Ireland’s 50th anniversary of contributing troops to the UN.
Each year the Irish who fell at the Somme are also remembered at Dublin’s Islandbridge War Memorial where in 2006 the Union Flag took pride of place among the flags of the nations in that awful conflict while the Irish Tricolour flew silently overhead at half mast.
The atmosphere was both solemn and liberating as veterans proudly displayed their medals and others talked excitedly about the new spirit of freedom that enabled them to speak about relatives who fought, suffered and died at the Battle of the Somme.
Retired Irish Army Captain Donal Buckley credits former Taoiseach Sean Lemass for breaking the silence in 1966 by calling on Irish people to acknowledge these sacrifices. The call fell largely on deaf ears but the word “maturity” was on many lips at Islandbridge. People noted the large contingent from Northern Ireland representing all the major political parties.
Four years previously on a lonely hillside near Westport, Co Mayo, a new headstone was ceremoniously unveiled at the previously unmarked grave of Sergeant Major Cornelius Coughlan VC, who died in 1915. Last year a moving service was conducted in Galway’s Catholic Cathedral for those of County Galway who gave their lives in the Great War.
People throughout the island have long fought in British as well as Irish uniforms in various parts of the world. Today increasing numbers join the British army with an estimated 16 per cent of recent Northern Irish recruits being citizens of the Irish Republic. Ancient animosities are being forgotten and new relationships established throughout the islands while a new tolerance opens new horizons.
The participation of Irish people from the 26 counties in the First World War was generally ignored in the wake of 1916 but entry into the European Community and the fact that many Irish people were sick of the violence in the north is credited with having helped to change things. Many have begun to question the partial histories we have learned and various Regimental Associations throughout the island seek to preserve honourable traditions.
There is no need to judge the rightness or wrongness of any war in order to acknowledge the courage and sacrifice of youth. This should apply to the welcome home being extended to members of the Royal Irish Regiment in Belfast this weekend. Critics have every right to protest and panic-stricken reactions don’t help but relatives of lost loved ones and of returning soldiers are understandably hyper-sensitive. Their boys and girls suffered in, or have just returned from, the hell of war. We must tread carefully for we tread on their dreams.
Email roy@ irishnews.com
Connaught Stranger.
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