Dawn lament heralds Enniskillen services
COMMEMORATIONS for the centenary of Armistice Day started in Co Fermanagh before dawn yesterday with the sound of a lone piper.
More than 100 people gathered in the dark at Enniskillen Castle at 6am to hear the piper play When The Battle’s O’er, a traditional tune which featured at other venues too.
The Wilfred Owen poem Anthem For Doomed Youth was read before clergy from the four main churches in the town led prayers of reflection.
The Last Post was played on the bugle that sounded the charge of the 36th Ulster Division at the Battle of the Somme in 1916, before a two-minute silence was observed.
The Queen’s representative, the Lord Lieutenant for Co Fermanagh, Viscount Brookeborough gave the oration.
“All of our communities served willingly and suffered equally throughout the long years of that war and I am delighted to see so many people here this morning,” he said.
“The Armistice was signed a few minutes after 5am on that 11th day, and we are in Enniskillen, the western-most point of this celebration this year.
“Enniskillen was the first town to hear of the Armistice through a radio operator scanning the airwaves and he heard, in Morse code, the message which was transmitted in Paris and he translated it.
“So Enniskillen was that first town, some two-and-a-half hours before anyone else heard it.”
Viscount Brookeborough pre- sented commemorative lanterns to the clergy representing the four churches.
As he did so, he said: “I ask you to take these lanterns back to your congregations as a symbol of the light of peace emerging from the darkness of war, and I ask that you join us again at 6pm this evening in St Michael’s Church as we conclude our Great War commemorations by looking forward together towards a brighter future.”
The event, which was organised by the Inniskillings Museum in the town, concluded with an historical interpretation of the moment the message of the Armistice was received in Enniskillen in 1918.
The town reportedly heard the news before London, Edinburgh, Manchester or Dublin on November 11, 1918 thanks to the local wireless operator.
He intercepted a message sent from Paris by the Armed Forces Commander in Chief, Marshal Ferdinand Foch, announcing the time for the cessation of hostilities.
Museum curator-manager Neil Armstrong described the re-enactment event as an “evocative start to our community commemorations”.
Yesterday’s commemorations included an act of remembrance at the Cenotaph in Enniskillen at 10.50am, followed by a service at St Macartan’s Cathedral in the town.
There was an added poignancy to the commemorations given that an IRA bomb devastated the annual act of remembrance in Enniskillen in 1987.
The atrocity killed 11 men and women.
Another man died after spending 13 years in a coma due to his injuries.
Another service took place in the town on Sunday evening at St Michael’s Church, before the Last Post was played at St Macartan’s Cathedral.
Orange Order service