Today I gave my speech at the Somme for the first time in French, Irish (Ulster Gaelic) and English
Construite par l’amour d’un fils
J’abrite en lettres d’or l’amour d’Ulster.
En ce jour sacré nous commémorons le sacrifice de ces héros tombés pour la liberté. Nous ne cherchons pas seulement à les glorifier, mais à veiller à ce que un tel désastre ne se reproduise plus jamais.
A Státrúnaí, a Aire Donnchadh Mac Fhionnlaoich, Mo Thiarnaí, A Mhná agus a Fhir Uaisle
Thosaigh Cath an Somme ar an chéad lá Iúil 1916, cothrom an lae inniu. Ar an lá sin, tháinig an Rannán 36 (Uladh) amach as Coill Thiepval, agus na saighdiúirí cróga ar a mbealach ions ar Redoubt Schwaben. Ar shroicheachteáil an phointe sin dóibh, bhain siad amach áit iontach sa stair, agus onóir leanúnach a mhaireas go deo. In ainneoin gur cailleadh 5,500 saighdiúir, seasann an tionscnamh seo amach mar an eachtra is mó agus is cróga sa Chéad Cogadh Domhanda agus tá muid bródúil as, cionn is gur é an léiriú is mó é den misneach daonna i stair an duine. Thaispeáin laochra an Rannáin 16 (Éireannach) an chalmacht chéanna nuair a throid siad ag Ginchy agus Guillemont i Meán Fómhair na bliana sin.
Tógadh an túr cuimhneacháin seo ar an áit naofa seo fríd sintiúisí poiblí a bhfuarthas i nDún Thuaidh. Cuireadh le chéile é mar mhacasamhail ar Túr Heléin i gceantar Chlann Aodh Buí an áit a dteachaidh an Rannán 36 (Uladh) faoi thraenáil.
Tá téacs de dhán, greanta i litreacha órga, le feiceáil istigh i dTúr Heiléin i gClann Aodha Buí. Is é an Tiarna Alfred Tennyson an t-údar. Istigh i dTúr Uladh, ar an láthair seo, tá macasamhail den dán céanna le léamh. Tá dornán focal athraithe chun aitheantas a thabhairt d’ fhir Uladh.
A Thúir Heiléin seasaim leat
Ag féachaint síos ar mhuir is tír
Grá mo mhic a thóg mé, is coinním
Grá Uladh i litreacha órga
Agus, mar sin, tá muid tagtha in éineacht le Cumann an Somme, chun cuairt eile a thabhairt ar Thiepval agus le bheith ag spaisteoireacht i ngarraithe Valhalla, áit a bhfuil faoi chúram gheanúil ag Coimisiún Uaigheann Cogaidh an Chomhlathais. Is beannaithe an lá inniu is muid ag cur ceiliúradh ar bun i gcuimhne ár bpobal muirneach a d’íobair iad féin chun saoirse. Ní chun cogadh a ghlóiriú atá muid anseo ach chun deimhin a dhéanamh nach dtarlódh a leithid sin arís.
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Owen Patterson, Minister of State Jonathan Bell, Irish Minister of State Dinny Mc Ginley, Distinguished Guests, My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen.
On this day, 1st July 1916, 96 years ago, at the commencement of the Battle of the Somme, the men of the famous 36th (Ulster) Division advanced out of Thiepval Wood towards this point on the Schwaben Redoubt and on reaching here, passed into the pages of history, legend and high renown. This advance, when they sustained 5,500 casualties, under continuous fire, is for us the most memorable single episode of the First World War and stands as one of the finest displays of human courage in the history of mankind. Equal in valour were the men of the 16th (Irish) Division who fought at Guillemont and Ginchy in September of that year.
This memorial, erected on this sacred site by public subscription, raised in the North of Ireland, was modelled on Helen’s Tower at Clandeboye, near Bangor,where the 36th (Ulster) Division trained.
In Helen’s Tower at Clandeboye there is inscribed in letters of gold a poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, of which the first four lines have been slightly altered in the memorial room in this Ulster tower to serve as a fitting tribute to the sons of Ulster who fell here.
Helen’s Tower here I stand
Dominant over sea and land;
Son’s love built me, and I hold
Ulster’s love in lettered gold.
And so we have come with the Somme Association to visit Thiepval once more and to walk again in the gardens of Valhalla so lovingly cared for by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. On this sacred day we commemorate the sacrifice of our loved ones who died for freedom. We do not seek to glorify war but rather to see that it does not happen again.
It may be that there are certain setbacks in history of such magnitude and heroism that they serve to sustain and temper a people instead of weakening them. Or else, perhaps the setbacks come to have an energising, emblematic power. So the importance to us of our Ceremonies at the Ulster Tower and Guillemont.
Following the re-dedication of the Ulster Tower in 1989 by Her Royal Highness Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, under the auspices of the Farset Somme Project, the Somme Association was formed the next year to emphasise the contribution of the Irish soldier, both North and South in the tragedy that was the First World War.
As we enter the run-up to the Centenary of the Battle of the Somme in 2016 and the formation of Northern Ireland and establishment of the Ulster Tower at Thiepval in 2021, we would thank you on behalf of our President, His Royal Highness Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester, all for your support for the Somme Association both here in France, Belgium and Gallipoli, especially as we enter a new and challenging chapter of our history.
Merci beaucoup, Go raibh maith agaibh, Dank u wel, Haben Sie vielen Dank, Thank you very much.