Poignant tribute to soldier grandfather
“He joined the 10th Battalion of the Inniskilling Fusiliers when he was 16 years old and found himself on the Western Front at a very young age.
“One year later, in the autumn of 1915, he was in the trenches of the Western Front and ultimately was part of, and witness to, the tragedy and brutality of the first day of the Somme offensive on the 1st of July 1916.
“He lost many good friends that day and on subsequent days.
“Of his company of 250 men of all ranks, only 21 survived the first day of the Somme unscathed. Like so many Irishmen — nationalist and unionist — his was only one story.
“I think that it is fitting that we remember our fellow countrymen and people of all nations. People can disagree with wars and the strategies and the purposes of war, but we should also recognise the circumstances and the conditions, the motives and the lack of choices of those who were put on the front line and in harm’s way in wars. That is what we will be remembering today.
“Indeed, it’s appropriate that we now have the circumstances in which people can feel free to do that.
“I think it is appropriate that we all remember the suffering, but not only of those who were involved in the conflicts of those particular times but also of their families.
“On the island of Ireland there were over 30,000 children who had no father at the end of WWI.
“That is why it is worth remembering because there were so many people who had much more to combat after the war was over.”
The Mayor also held a special ‘Battle’s Over’ tribute marking the centenary of the end of the First World War at the Guildhall yesterday evening. An interdenominational service was held which culminated in the lighting of two beacons, one in Guildhall Square and the other in the Diamond, Castlederg.