PRIMATE’S PRAISE FOR ROYAL IRISH REGIMENT AT POIGNANT ANNUAL CEREMONY INST ANNE’ S
Church of Ireland Primate has praised the distinguished history of the Royal Irish Regiment during their annual Remembrance Service at St Anne’s Cathedral.
Dr Richard Clarke also underlined the importance of human dignity in the context of Remembrance at the Belfast service.
He said: “The regiment has had a long and celebrated history which in recent weeks has been augmented further by the presentation in Belfast of new colours by the Duke of York.”
Yesterday’s service had a special poignancy as it was held just a week before the centenary of the Armistice of November 11, 1918.
The Archbishop noted that yesterday marked the centenary of the death in battle of the war poet Wilfred Owen.
He said: “Wilfred Owen’s most important contribution, not simply to poetry, but to our understanding of war even one hundred years later, was his determination that humans should never lose their humanity, regardless of the dreadfulness of their circumstances, even in the mud and terror of war that he was experiencing at first hand.”
The Primate concluded: “In these days as our focus is on remembering and commemorating the conclusion of World War One, we are reminded that the Christian call to remembrance is never just about reminding ourselves how things have come to be as they are.
“It is also a pointing to a future that could be different if we would only work with God, who is the Lord not only of the past or present but also of the future.”
The Cathedral’s large congregation included members of the R Irish and veterans of the Royal Ulster Rifles, the Royal Irish Fusiliers, and the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.
Meanwhile, the daughter of a Korean War veteran has paid tribute to her father and all the other Ulster soldiers killed and injured in one of the fiercest battles of 1951.
In the Battle at Happy Valley, 157 soldiers from the Royal Ulster Rifles were killed, injured or captured. Catherine Charley’s father, Lieutenant-Colonel Robin Charley, was a Captain with the RUR in 1951.
“My dad was fortunate because he survived the fierce battle between the Ulstermen and the Chinese and North Korean troops. It was a terrible toll in the regiment in only one night.”
Colonel Charley, now 94, has attended every Remembrance Service until this year when ill health prevented him doing so.
His daughter, who attended yesterday’s service at St Anne’s, said: “My dad went back to KoTHE rea in 2011 with other veterans and he told me that they were treated with great respect by the South Koreans for the part they played in the Korean War.
“He went back to South Korea again in 2015 at the age of 91, and he was amazed by the changes that had taken place since he was a soldier there in 1951.
“During his second visit to the Happy Valley area in 2015 he unveiled a war memorial plaque to the men of the RUR who had fought there.”