Theresa Villiers visits Dublin for WW1 memorial event
I attended this event as chairman of the Somme Association and a member of the Northern Ireland World War I Centenary committee chaired by Rt Hon Jeffrey Donaldson MP.
Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers has described as a “great honour” her attendance at the ceremony
She laid a foundation stone for a memorial cross at Glasnevin Cemetery with Irish Arts Minister Jimmy Deenihan to mark the centenary of World War One.
“It recognises that thousands of men from the island of Ireland, north and south, died in the service of the British army in World War One,” she said.
“That sacrifice needs to be recognised.
“Here at Glasnevin from now on, we have a place where people can contemplate the heroism of those who gave their lives for our freedom.”
A monumental Cross of Sacrifice is being erected on the site bythe Commonwealth War Graves Commission, with support from the Irish government, to mark the centenary of the First World War.
It will commemorate the sacrifice of all Irish soldiers who lost their lives in both world wars.
In recent years, as Anglo-Irish relations have markedly improved, there has been a growing acknowledgement in the Republic of Ireland of the contribution its citizens made fighting in the British army during the First World War – just before independence.
An official apology from the Irish government has also been issued to those thousands of soldiers who deserted its neutral forces during the Second World War to fight for Britain against Nazi Germany, and were effectively ostracised by the state on their return.
The latest event in Glasnevin forms part of a wider programme of ceremonies attended by UK and Irish m inisters to mark the war’s centenary and the associated decade of commemorations in Ireland, when events such as the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin against British rule will also be marked.
