Sunday 23rd. February 2014.  (Ian Adamson was the historical tour guide all day).

• 09:00am – Bus pick up at Derryhill shops, Rathcoole.
• 09:15am – Bus pick up at Crues. football club, Shore Road.
• 11:00am – Tour of Newgrange & Bru na Boinne (Bend of the Boyne) Centre, telling the ancient history of the area from 11am to 11:45am, then boarded a mini-bus to take us out to Newgrange for 12am, the Newgrange tour lasted one hour then the mini-bus brought  us back to the visitors centre for 1:15pm.

Brú na Bóinne Visitor Centre interprets the Neolithic monuments of Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth. The extensive exhibition includes a full scale replica of the chamber at Newgrange as well as a full model of one of the smaller tombs at Knowth.

All admission to Newgrange and Knowth is through the Visitor Centre, there is no direct access to these monuments. We were brought from the Visitor Centre to the monuments by shuttle bus.

Archaeological Ensemble of the Bend of the Boyne

Newgrange was built about 3200 BC, during the Neolithic period, which makes it older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids. Newgrange is a large circular mound with a stone passageway and chambers inside. The mound has a retaining wall at the front and is ringed by ‘kerbstones’ engraved with artwork. There is no agreement about what the site was used for, but it has been speculated that it had religious significance – it is aligned with the rising sun and its light floods the chamber on the winter solstice. It is the most famous monument within the Neolithic Brú na Bóinne  complex, alongside the similar passage tomb mounds of Knowth and Dowth, and as such is a part of the Brú na Bóinne UNESCO World Heritage Site. Newgrange also shares many similarities with other Neolithic constructions in Western Europe, such as Maeshowe in Orkney, and the Bryn Celli Dhu in Wales.

After its initial use, Newgrange was sealed and it remained so for several millennia, later appearing in Irish mythology and folklore. It first began to be studied by antiquarians in the 17th century AD and archaeological excavations took place at the site over the following centuries. In the 1970s, the front of the monument was reconstructed, although some have questioned this move. Today, Newgrange is a popular tourist site and, according to the archaeologist Colin Renfrew, is “unhesitatingly regarded by the prehistorian as the great national monument of Ireland” and as one of the most important megalithic structures in Europe.

• 01:30pm – Three course set lunch with tea/coffee at the Tea Pavillion on site. (Veg soup, Beef & Guinness with baby potatoe, apple pie & custard).
• 02:15pm – Bus pick up for Hill of Tara.
• 02:30pm – Walking tour of the anicent Hill of Tara, Boyne Valley. Co. Meath.

The Hill of Tara (Irish: Cnoc na Teamhrach, Teamhair or Teamhair na Rí), runs between Navan and Dunshaughlin. It contains a number of ancient monuments, and according to tradition, was the seat of the so-called High King of Ireland.

Hill of Tara Cnoc na Teamhrach
The Lia Fail

• A Royal Place – In prehistory and historic times 142 Kings are said to have reigned in the name of Tara. What is reputed to be the coronation stone, the Lia Fail or Stone of Destiny has rested here down the ages. And it was here that the most powerful of Irish Kings held their great inaugural feasts and were approved by Earth Mother Goddesss Maeve
  A Sacred Place – In ancient Irish religion and mythlogy, Tara was revered as a dwelling of the gods and an entrance place to the otherworld of eternal joy and plenty where no mortal ever grew old. In the legends of St Patrick’s mission to Ireland he is said to have first come to Tara to confront the ancient religion in its most powerful sight.
• 03:30pm – Bus pick up for Belfast.

Finally we travelled to the Bridal Loanen in Warrenpoint to see the Coronation Stone of the  Iveagh Cruthin.The story is that this was the stone on which the head of the MacGuinness clan received his initiation. It was called ‘Cusleac Aonguis’ or the Footstone of Aongus – from Aongus to MacAongus to MacGuinness or Magennis is an easy transition. According to tradition the young potential chieftain dressed in tight-fitting clothes of many colours, and with a jacket of gilded leather and embroidered silk held by a gold brooch, would ‘step on the Stone of Fate’: .. flinging off his right sandal and placing his foot in the indentation on the Stone, he would be given ‘the white Wand of Power’, which he would place in the socket of the Stone.   Finally a gold sandal would be put on his foot and he would be proclaimed ‘The MacGuinness’, with a great fanfare of trumpets.

 

I first saw it as a boy when it was neglected and overgrown as in this old photograph, but is now looked after by Newry and Mourne Council..The Dalaradia organisation will see to it that the Coronation Stone of the Kings of Ulster at Crew Hill will be properly cared for as well. 

• 06:45pm – Drop off Crues. football club, Shore Road.
• 07:00pm – Drop off Derryhill shops, Rathcoole.

.

Saturday 22nd. February 2014.  (Ian Adamson was our historical tour guide all day).

• 09:00am – Bus pick up at Derryhill shops, Rathcoole.
• 09:15am – Bus pick up at Crues. football club, Shore Road.
• 11:00am – Tour of Battle of Boyne site, Co. Meath. (Visitor centre, Battlefield, Boyne River with private guide).
• The Battle of the Boyne between King William III and his father-in-law, King James II, was fought on 1st July, 1690 (11th July according to our modern calendar, so that Bonfire Night celebrates the Battle of the Boyne and Orangeman’s Day, 12th July, the whole of the glorious Revolution, the final victory at the Battle of Aughrim being on 12th July, 1691). Both kings commanded their armies in person, 36,000 on the Williamite side and 25,000 on the Jacobite side – the largest number of troops ever deployed on an Irish battlefield.  At stake were the British throne, French dominance in Europe and power in Ireland. The Battle of the Boyne Visitor Centre is located in the recently restored 18th century Oldbridge House, which is on the battlesite. There is free access to the battlesite, parklands and the formal gardens.

Battle of the Boyne Site
Where William of Orange defeated King James II in 1690.

• 12:30pm – Three course set lunch with tea/coffee at the Tea Pavillion on site. (Veg soup, Chicken & Garlic with baby potatoe, apple pie & custard).
• 01:00pm – Bus pick up.
• 01:15pm – Tour of Francis Ledwidge Museum & Gardens, Slane, Co.Meath. (Known as poet of the Blackbird who was killed in action at Ypres WW1).
  

  

  The Ledwidge Cottage Museum commemorates the Irish poet, political activist, nationalist and war hero Francis Ledwidge (1887-1917). The cottage is the family home where Ledwidge was the eight of nine children who grew up in poverty. Ledwidge worked a variety of menial jobs before he attracted the patronage of Lord Dunsany. He joined the Irish Volunteers and went on to fight with the British Army in World War I. His poetry expresses his longing for home and his disillusionment after experiencing the horrors of war while Irish nationalist rebellion stirred in Ireland. Before he could return home to play his part in the new Ireland that was emerging, Ledwidge, along with five other enlisted men, were killed by a shell while repairing a road near Ieper (Ypres), Belgium. 
• 02:00pm – Bus pick up.
• 02:15pm – Tour of Slane Hill, Slane village.  (Slane Hill is named after an ancient king buried here & St. Patrick lit the first paschal fire here).
  

  The Hill of Slane is predominantly steeped in Christian history and myth. St Patrick is traditionally believed to have lit the first paschal fire on the hill in defiance of the pagan High King Lóegaire. The king, who resided at Tara, forbid any other fires being lit within view of Tara during the Beltaine Festival (Spring Equinox). In Muirchú Moccu Mactheni’s highly mythicized 7th century Life of Patrick, Lóegaire is described as “a great king, fierce and pagan, emperor of the barbarians”. After a number of attempts by Lóegaire and others to kill Patrick, Lóegaire is warned by the saint that he must accept the faith or die. Having taken the counsel of his people, he submits and is baptised. St Erc was believed to be a pagan druid converted by Patrick and appointed first Bishop of Slane. Erc is believed to have trained St Brendan the Navigator at his church in Tralee, and ordained him priest in 512 AD. St Brendan is one of the 12 Apostles of Ireland. But even before the establishment of the ancient monastery, the hill had a pre-Christian history. The warrior and Fir Bolg King Slaine met his death upon this hill and is believed to have been buried here. Slaine may well have been a Belgic king of British origin.  A mound, now known as “The Motte” and currently blocked from view by trees and blockaded from approach by fencing, is most likely over his grave. This mound may have been converted to a motte by the Norman Richard Fleming in the 1170s. The Bailey was abandoned when the Flemings moved to Slane Castle. The Flemings reconstructed the monastic site for the Franciscans in the 16th century. East of the mound is a ring-barrow which could also be the burial place of Slaine.

Were you a soldier come home from the war,

Seeking once again to find

The foetal comfort of a childhood haunt

Whose memory you had carried in your mind?

Was it to ease some fever of the brain

You were drawn into this ancient wood that day,

To carve your initials and the year

Deep into the bark of this great beech?

What demons did you seek to drive away?

Did digging with the sharp blade once again,

Keep you safe and far beyond their reach?

Perhaps it was early in the month of May,

You sought redemption in  placid solitude                                     

Delicate bluebells dressing the woodland floor

A pastel incense mist of petals massing.

Or was it deathly, dreary mid November

No song-birds calling

But gently without a sound

The last pale russet leaves

Like mournful salt tears falling,

In soft and sad salute to autumn passing?

Perhaps the hills were virgin white with snow

As you made your solitary way

Those four-score years ago

On a brutal, grinding, harsh December day,

With all the sombre world around 

Granite cold and hard as cobbled stone

Sleeping below a marble shroud of ice and frost?

As you wrought, mind focused on the past

Did each sharp movement of your wrist

Remind you of wasted locust years you’d lost

Gouging deep furrows in fields and forests far away

Where reverently you buried

Brave comrade and brave foe,

And carved their names upon a simple cross.         

In the woods that surround our home there is an avenue of beech trees which mark the track where over a century ago the Grainger family quarried for road building stones. The track ran from Church Road out onto the land where Holywood golf course is now. One of the holes on the course is named The Quarry. I pass along this track several times each week. On the trunk of one of the trees someone has carved CD 1918. This carving has always stimulated my imagination. 

 There may be many explanations. Perhaps it was a soldier who had survived the War and on his return home came to the place he most associated with peace and tranquillity. Perhaps the image of that place had helped him retain his sanity among the carnage and destruction. I think that we owe such a debt to those generations who fought or died for us. We have a duty to care for those who returned and cherish lovingly the memory of those who did not.

Herbert Kitchener (1850-1916) 1st Earl Kitchener. was the British Field Marshal associated with the Boer War but he also played a central role in the early part of World War I. This is a fascinating letter of fourteen pages by Major General C. H. Powell,  Wickham, Hampshire, 7th May 1939, to Major A. F. Becke. Major General Sir Charles Herbert Powell (1857-1943) served in several campaigns and raised and commanded the Ulster Division of the New Army 1914-15.  Powell informs his correspondent about the Field Marshal’s role in the formation of the 36th Ulster Division.

‘As you are already aware I raised the Division, & Commanded it till the eve of its embarkation for France, when Oliver Nugent succeeded me’ and continues ‘To my everlasting regret I was informed by the Chief of Staff that I was too old to command it in the field!’ He further reflects ‘While I was raising it the Division was my “child”: never in the whole of my 30 odd years service did I have such an interesting experience. Never, till the Great War, did officers have the unique experience of actually raising either a Division or a Brigade….It was a unique experience, and the interest of it all increased from week to week, from month to month, as the Battalions, the Brigades, the Divisional Engineers…..& other units took shape’ and also refers to Earl Kitchener, ‘Kitchener wanted Ulster to raise our own Artillery, but Carson, for some reason I never knew, told him Ulster couldn’t.

About March 1915 the W.O. informed me that certain Territorial Artillery was earmarked for the Ulster Division. When, however, the Division was mobilised and equipped (at Seaford) in July 1915, I was informed that Kitchener had “stolen” our Artillery for some other Division of the New Armies. This took me to the W.O. at once to protest. I pointed out that the Division was ready to take to the field but it would now have to be held back till the other artillery was trained! My protests were unavailing: “K’s word was inexorable said the Insp. Genl. Artillery! We were told this “other” artillery was now being raised in East Ham & another part of the City of London.’ Powell also recounts inspecting the ‘other’ artillery (‘we found men being taught to mount & dismount on wooden horses!!’) and urging General Archibald Murray to inspect the 36th Division, ‘Murray, however, wrote me that he had only orders (from K) to inspect the 16th Division and the 10th.

Two months later he inspected us at Seaford and on learning from him that our Artillery had been “stolen”, & that we wd. consequently be held back I urged on Murray to get K. to send us to Gallipoli, because I was told that Divisions, sent there, did not require their own Artillery as was the case with Divisions sent to France. Murray said that was quite a good idea, & he would mention it to K. However, my suggestion was not taken up; and in due course, the Division embarked for France; and, with a sore heart, I was torn away from my beloved Division. Kitchener & Carson were reported to have had “high words” over Carson’s wish to raise an Ulster Division for the Great Cause. Kitchener would not give his consent, and it was some 3 weeks before the order went forth! This delay proved fatal to the Division, because these gallant Ulster Volunteers were straining at the leash to join up in an Ulster Division…’

But the story does not end there. Following William’s death, Lillah went with two of her cousins, my granny Isabella and her sister, Cecil’s granny, my Aunt Hannah, whose husband Herbie was in the 36^th (Ulster) Division until the end of the War, to work on munitions at the Alfred Nobel Dynamite factory at Ardeer in Ayrshire, Scotland. When I was a boy, I used to deliver daily newspapers to Lillah in Roseneath Cottage. We often talked about her brother and she told me that we looked alike and that I reminded her of him – which is perhaps not surprising in view of the family connection. It was from Lillah, my Granny Isabella and Aunt Hannah that I learned most about the Great War. Granny helped inform my views on my identity as a British Unionist, an Irish Royalist and an Ulster Loyalist, as well as my own principles. Always, she instructed, vote for the “Cloth Cap.”

Only much later, however, did that interest in the war turn into something more active. In 1975 I was contacted by a leading French academic in the study of Ireland, Professor René Frechet, following the publication of my book The Cruthin – the Ancient Kindred (1974). This was the beginning of a long and productive correspondence that lasted until René Frechet’s death in 1992. It is no exaggeration to say that as Professor of English at the Sorbonne, and the spirit behind the University’s Institute of Irish Studies, set up in 1979, he served as guide and councillor to the increasing number of French students engaged in research into Irish themes. His Histoire de l’Irlande (1970) was only one facet of his numerous activities in the field of Irish studies. Apart from his love of Irish literature – his translation of the poetical works of Yeats (1989) is a model of precision and sensibility – he followed closely events in Northern Ireland which he covered in a series of often outspoken articles published in the French Protestant weekly, Réforme. An acute knowledge of facts as well as an indefectible affection for every aspect of life in the region guided his particular interest in the North. As a young lecturer he had spent two years at Queens’ University Belfast. The experience he acquired, and the long-lasting friendships he made at that time gave him an indisputable authority to comment on developments in the political situation there. There is no doubt that it was through him that the point of view of the Ulster Protestant found its most articulate and sympathetic spokesman in France. His convictions and courageous declarations did much to counter-balance the, often superficial, representations of this community in the mainstream, essentially pro-Republican French press.

I was greatly honoured that René Frechet should take an interest in my work. Commenting on my Identity of Ulster [i], he wrote:

“What an interesting, curious piece of work this is. Generally, if we are told it is not a question of a war of religion in Ulster, we are told about opposition between Catholics, whom people think of as mostly wishing for the unification of the island, and Protestants who want to remain British. Adamson however, does not militate in favour of the bringing together of two quite distinct communities. He says that their division is artificial, that they are all more or less descendants of pre-Celtic peoples, and in particular of the Cruthin, who were constantly moving backwards and forwards between Ulster and Scotland, where they were called Picts, a fact that did not prevent their homeland becoming the most Gaelic part of Ireland. “British”, as far as he is concerned, takes on a meaning that Ulster people tend to forget. Here are some interesting phrases for comparison. “‘Old British’ was displaced in Ireland by Gaelic just as English displaced Gaelic”; “the people of the Shankill Road speak an English which is almost a literal translation of Gaelic”; “the majority of Scottish Gaelic speakers are Protestants.” In fact the author is especially interested in Protestants, but those Protestants who have worked or are working towards reconciliation (could these even be the United Irishmen of the 1790’s?), for a co-operative movement, for a kind of popular autonomy or self-management. He shows the paradoxical confusion of antagonistic, partly mythical traditions, and is trying to convince people of the fundamental unity of Ulster”. 

Throughout the 1980s, Fréchet followed my involvement in the creation of several community organisations to promote my ideals of mutual respect, common identity, co-operation and self-help. These included the Farset Youth Project. The idea behind the project was to bring together young people from both sides of the community and allow them to follow in the footsteps of Saint Columbanus from Bangor in the North of Ireland to Reims and Luxeuil in France, through St Gallen in Switzerland, to Bregenz in Austria, and finally on to Bobbio in Italy. In a country where violence was dividing the people, it was important to point to a shared past. This project became possible thanks in no small measure to the help of my friend Tomás Cardinal Ó Fiaich, whose foreword to the second edition of my book, Bangor Light of the World, in 1987 [ii] is testimony to his commitment to the cross-community line we saw as so vital.

On our way back to Ulster during our first trip to France with Young People from the Shankill and Falls Road areas of Belfast and from Tallaght and Inchicore in Dublin, during the height of The Troubles, I asked the group to make a detour to the Ulster Memorial Tower to explain the part played by Irishmen of all persuasions in the First World War in France, Belgium and the Dardanelles. From our Farset Somme Project developed the idea of a Somme Association, which was to be supported by an international organisation, Friends of the Somme. [iii] This Association took root at a press conference held under the auspices of the then Lord Mayor of Belfast, Sammy Wilson and the Lady Mayoress, Rhonda Paisley, on the 70th Anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, 1 July, 1986, when a Somme Commemoration Committee was initiated.

Having grown up in sight of Helen’s Tower at Clandeboye, where the Belfast Brigade of the 36th (Ulster) Division had trained, and on which the Ulster Memorial Tower at Thiepval had been modelled, I proposed that museum complexes close to both towers could be built, that Thiepval Wood could be purchased and that Helen’s Tower could be opened up to the public under the stewardship of the Dufferin family. Ian Paisley explained his own position as a European MP and emphasised that this was a project to honour everyone who had fought at the Somme, both Unionist and Nationalist, Catholic and Protestant. He helped the project to achieve its aims through the good offices of the European Parliament, the French Embassy and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

And so, on 1 July, 1989, the Ulster Memorial Tower at Thiepval in France, the second Helen’s Tower, built by public subscription and completed in 1922, was re-dedicated under the auspices of our Farset Somme Project by HRH Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester. Hundreds of pilgrims from Ulster made the journey, among them veterans of the 36^th (Ulster) Division and public representatives from throughout Northern Ireland. We were delighted that the Duchess continued to be associated with our work by consenting to become the first President of The Somme Association, formally established in 1990, and that her son Prince Richard agreed to follow her in this role following her death in October 2004. He had opened our Somme Heritage Centre at Whitespots, Conlig in 1994. This also contains an exhibition on Nationalist and Republican Ireland, centring on the Easter Rising of 1916, to show both sides of the story as part of our shared history.

As founding Chairman of the Somme Association, I have travelled to France and Belgium every year since its inception to remember the ordinary soldiers from throughout Ireland who fought and died there. Prince Richard has accompanied us many times, officiating at our ceremonies of Remembrance in both France and Gallipoli, and meeting with President Mary McAleese in Turkey. In commemorating the 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War in 2008, I was especially privileged to attend three Services of Remembrance in Belgium and France. The first took place on Sunday 29 June at the memorial at Wytschaete (Belgium) for the 16th (Irish) Division, the Catholic and largely Nationalist division that had fought there alongside the Loyalist 36^th (Ulster) Division at the Battle of Messines in June 1917.

Dr Ian and Baroness Eileen Paisley attended this service and Dr Paisley laid a wreath at the grave of Major Willie Redmond at Locre. On Tuesday 1 July we attended the British and French Service at Thiepval Memorial led by the then Secretary of State, the Right Honourable Sean Woodward. As Chairman of the Somme Association I also officiated at the Ulster Tower Service in memory of the 36th (Ulster) Division and of their comrades in arms who had fought there at the Battle of the Somme. On Sunday 7 September 2008, the Association held a further service of remembrance at the 16th (Irish) Division memorial at Guillemont in honour its members who fought at Guillemont and Ginchy during the Battle of the Somme in September 1916. This service was attended by the Mayor of Derry, and by dignitaries from throughout Northern Ireland.

Helen’s Tower at Clandeboye contains a beautiful room in which are inscribed poems by Lady Helen Dufferin, Lord Alfred Tennyson and Rudyard Kipling, amongst others. Tennyson’s verse reads:

Helen’s Tower here I stand,

Dominant over sea and land.

Son’s love built me, and I hold

Mother’s love in letter’d gold.

Love is in and out of time,

I am mortal stone and lime.

Would my granite girth were strong

As either love, to last as long

I would wear my crown entire

To and thro’ the Doomsday fire,

And be found of angel eyes

In earth’s recurring Paradise.

This poem is replicated in the Ulster Tower at Thiepval, but slightly altered to make it a fitting tribute to the Sons of Ulster and their comrades–in–arms who fought and died in the First World War:

Helen’s Tower here I stand

Dominant over sea and land

Son’s love built me, and I hold

Ulster’s love in letter’d gold.

This suggested to me the importance of literature as a means of understanding the experience of those who fought in the Great War and of paying tribute to them. To this end, I established the Somme Association’s “Battlelines” journal. This regular publication also kept the “Friends of the Somme” and general public informed as to developments within our organisation and included interviews with First World War veterans, biographies of Irish V.C. holders, features on cemeteries and memorials, reprints of prominent newspaper headlines and general historical articles.  Amongst the soldier authors so remembered were Tom Kettle, journalist and professor at the National University of Ireland, who died as a Lieutenant with the 9th Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers at Ginchy in September 1916, and Francis Ledwidge, who was killed while labouring with a working party in Flanders on 31 July 1917. These two poets were specially remembered at our services in 2008. Captain Lord Dunsany, Ledwidge’s patron and senior officer in the Royal Inniskillngs, wrote at the time: “I gave my opinion that if Ledwidge had lived, this lover of all seasons in which the blackbird sings would have surpassed even Burns, and Ireland would lawfully have claimed, as she may do even yet, the greatest of the peasant singers.”

In September of that year we also remembered J. R. R. Tolkien and his two groups of friends, the first in the pre-war Tea Club and Barrovian Society (TCBS) and the second after the war in the Inklings, the latter including C. S. Lewis, from Belfast. Tolkien never forgot what he called the “animal horror of trench warfare.” The sights that he witnessed at the Somme, the images, sounds and the people he met stayed with him until his death in 1973. But from that horror came the inspiration of his great works including The Lord of the Rings.

During the war, Tolkien served as a 2^nd Lieutenant with the 11th Lancashire Fusiliers, where he took part in the Battle of the Somme. Tolkien’s battalion disembarked in Amiens, the capital of the Somme, and marched to a hamlet called Rubempré ten miles away. On Friday 30 June they moved near to the front line. The great offensive began early the next morning but the men of Tolkien’s Battalion were held in reserve. They were to go into battle several days later when, if all had gone according to plan, the German line would have been smashed open and the Allied troops would have penetrated deep into enemy territory. In reality, of course, the British went over the top at 7:30am on 1July to be met by a storm of unsuppressed German fire. The famous 36^th (Ulster) Division attacked from Thiepval Wood. Soon the awful truth dawned that on the first day of battle the British had 57,000 casualties (5,500 from the 36th Ulster Division), with 20,000 of them dead. Rob Gilson, a close school friend of Tolkien’s and member of the TCBS, had been killed at La Boisselle, where a great mine had been detonated in No Man’s Land.  Aided by unusually effective artillery fire, the men of the 36^th (Ulster) Division managed to penetrate further than any other British unit, reaching the formidable Schwaben redoubt.

When Tolkien went into action with the 11^th Lancashire Fusiliers on 14 July in an unsuccessful attack on the ruined hamlet of Ovillers many men of his battalion were killed around him. Day followed day on the same pattern – a rest period, back to the trenches, and more attacks. Tolkien was among those in the support at the eventually successful storming of the Schwaben Redoubt, upon which Northern Ireland’s National War Memorial – the Ulster Tower – now stands. He was rescued in the end by “trench fever,” a highly infectious disease carried by lice, and invalided back to England in early November. Sadly however his other friend from the TCBS, Geoffrey Bache Smith of the Salford Pals, was killed in the last days of the battle.

C. S. Lewis arrived at the front line trenches on his 19^th birthday, 29 November 1917.  Lewis also suffered from trench fever at the beginning of February 1918 but returned to the front on 28 February. The Germans launched their great spring offensive on 21 March, utilising additional troops that had been withdrawn from the eastern front following the Russian Revolution. During the first Battle of Arras from 21 to 28 March 1918, Lewis was in or near the front line and next saw action in the Battle of Hazebrouck from 12 to 15 April, when he was wounded by a British shell exploding behind him. The Medical Board described his wounds thus: “shell fragments caused three wounds in the left side of his chest, his left wrist and left leg,” and on 25 May 1918 he arrived by stretcher in London.

The experiences of the First World War drew Tolkien and Lewis together in Oxford in a legendary friendship that culminated in the Inklings, a new literary club to replace the vanished TCBS and in which Lewis substituted for both Gilson and Smith. Tolkien’s first story, written early in 1917 during his convalescence, was the Fall of Gondolin, which deals with the assault of the last elvish stronghold by Morgoth, the prime power of evil. These are the elves that form the basis of the Silmarillion in the Lord of the Rings. Many years later, Tolkien remarked of one of his principal characters: “My Sam Gamgee is indeed is a reflection of the English soldier, of the privates and batmen I knew in the 1914 war and recognised as so far superior to myself.”

Although the centenary of the Great War is upon us, the great works of Tolkien and Lewis have left us an extraordinary evocation of the atmosphere of pre-battle tension and watchfulness, the plunge from peace into terrifying peril, the mass movement of thousands of men, and the love, comradeship and wonderful courage of ordinary people on a battlefield that was dominated by great machines and swept by airborne killers, ruthless and without pity. This understanding of the war has been at the heart of the work undertaken by the Somme Heritage Association, work that has borne important fruit over the years, and not least in reconciliation within the island of Ireland.

On Monday 10 September 2007, Dr Paisley, as First Minister of Northern Ireland, and President Mary McAleese, as head of state of the Irish Republic, shook hands for the first time – another symbolic milestone on Ireland’s road to reconciliation – on the occasion of an exhibition held at the Somme Heritage Centre on the role of the 16^th (Irish) Division and its largely Catholic and nationalist soldiers in the Battle of the Somme. President McAleese paid tribute both to the event and to the museum, stating that:

It is an honour to be here at the opening of this exhibition commemorating the Battles of Guillemont and Ginchy, part of the heroic struggle of the Battle of the Somme fought over ninety years ago. Congratulations to Dr Ian Adamson, Carol Walker and all the members of the Somme Association for this labour of love, which allows the stories of those who fought and died to be honoured and respected and better known by a new generation.

As Dr Paisley’s Advisor on History and Culture, this gave me the greatest of pleasure. The event also helped pave the way for the visit of Her Majesty The Queen to the National Irish War Memorial at Islandbridge, Dublin, on 18 May 2011, where I felt no less honoured to be presented to her by President McAleese on behalf of our Association. I knew that William, Lillah and Granny Kerr would have been pleased.

Courtesy of my friend Jesse Smith., who wrote to me saying, “Here are your Cruthin, Ian…..” He has also asked about Dalriada…..so I have renamed the Subregions for him based  on the ancient clans of the Cruthin in Scotland and Ireland….Northern Caledonia, North Central Dalriada, Central Dal Fiatach, South Central Dalaradia, and Southern Iveagh…..But I would also add Western Tennessee and Western Kentucky as Venniconia, which is now known as Donegal and west Tyrone.

To me the Ozark people have their own rich and distinct South Appalachian culture, and they and the Ouachitas Highlanders should be left as they are, but the Scots-Irish of north Louisiana and Texas east of San Antonio could well take the pre-Celtic name of the great Pictish clan the Taexali, which, after all, is close to the name of Texas itself.

Session 5: Divisions
Chair: Dr Edward Madigan (Trinity College Dublin)

Henry VII (Welsh: Harri Tudur; 28 January 1457 – 21 April 1509) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizing the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death on 21 April 1509, as the first monarch of the House of Tudor.

Henry won the throne when his forces defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of England to win his throne on the field of battle. Henry cemented his claim by marrying Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV and niece of Richard III. Henry was successful in restoring the power and stability of the English monarchy after the political upheavals of the civil wars known as the Wars of the Roses. He founded the Tudor dynasty and, after a reign of nearly 24 years, was peacefully succeeded by his son, Henry VIII.

Henry’s main claim to the English throne derived from his mother through the House of Beaufort. Henry’s mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, was a great-granddaughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, fourth son of Edward III, and his third wife Katherine Swinford. Katherine was Gaunt’s mistress for about 25 years; when they married in 1396, they already had four children, including Henry’s great-grandfather John Beaufort. Thus Henry’s claim from an Anglo-Norman point of view was somewhat tenuous. 

Gaunt’s nephew Richard II legitimised Gaunt’s children by Katherine Swynford by Letters Patent in 1397. In 1407, Henry IV, who was Gaunt’s son by his first wife, issued new Letters Patent confirming the legitimacy of his half-siblings, but also declaring them ineligible for the throne. Henry IV’s action was of doubtful legality, as the Beauforts were previously legitimised by an Act of Parliament, but it further weakened Henry’s claim.

Nonetheless, by 1483 Henry was the senior male Lancastrian claimant remaining, after the deaths in battle or by murder or execution of Henry VI, his son Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, and the other Beaufort line of descent through Lady Margaret’s uncle, the 2nd Duke of Somerset.

But Henry also thought of himself as an ancient British King and attracted military support in Wales, thus safeguarding his army’s passage on its way to the Battle of Bosworth Field. He came from an old-established Anglesey family which claimed descent from Cadwaladr (in legend, the last ancient British king) and on occasion, Henry displayed the red dragon of Cadwaladr. He took it, as well as the standard of St George, on his procession through London after victory at Bosworth. A contemporary writer and Henry’s biographer, Bernard André, also made much of Henry’s Welsh descent.

Although, in reality, his hereditary connections to Welsh aristocracy were not just as strong as he would have liked, he was indeed descended by the paternal line, through several generations, from Ednyfed, the seneschal (steward) of Gwynedd and through this seneschal’s wife from Rhys ap Tewdwr, the King of Deheubarth in South Wales. His more immediate ancestor Tudur ap Goronwy had aristocratic land rights, but his sons, who were first cousins to Owain Glyndwr, sided with Owain in his revolt. One son was executed and the family land was forfeited. Another son, Henry’s great-grandfather, became a butler to the Bishop of Bangor. Owen Tudor, the son of the butler, like the children of other rebels, was provided for by Henry V, a circumstance which precipitated his access to Queen Catherine of Valois.

And so, to the bards of Wales, Henry was a candidate for Y Mab Darogan – “The Son of Prophecy” who would free the Welsh, last of the Britons to be anglicised, from English domination, Owen spoke Welsh or Cymric and since both of his sons held lands in Wales, it is most probable that Henry’s father spoke that ancient British language. What is most interesting however, is that Owen took his grandfather’s surname rather than his father’s, which was Meredith. So we should now be speaking of the Royal House of Meredith rather than Tudor. And that is why the Ullans Academy will elect Des Meredith to promote Cymric, the original Celtic language of  Ulster and of Ireland.