REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE 16th (Irish) Division Exhibition at the Somme Heritage Centre
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE 16th (Irish) Division Exhibition at the Somme Heritage Centre 10 SEPTEMBER 2007
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.
Last year two very significant events in the history of this island, the 90th Anniversary of the Battle of the Somme and the 90th Anniversary of the Easter Rising, were the subject of elegant and moving official commemorations in Dublin. Both events shook and shaped the destiny of this island. In the generations since, Irish men and women have often looked back at those times through very different prisms, so different and so riddled with conflicting viewpoints that the sheer reconciling power of this remarkable platform of shared memory was overlooked and neglected.
This exhibition is part of that platform - a place to stand together in shared respect and a place to help us grow in understanding of those difficult times. Here, in recalling these battles of Guillemont and Ginchy where the 16th Irish division fought so bravely in the most outrageous conditions, we recall the courage and generosity of so many young Irish men, from every background and belief, from Antrim to Cork, whose sacrifice forged our shared history, our shared memory. They showed us that there is no contradiction between working together collegially, in friendship and good neighbourliness on missions of common concern and interest while continuing to hold differing views and identities.
Many personal histories that should be better known, and could have helped us to better know ourselves and our commonalities, were swept away in the tumultuous events that engulfed Ireland immediately after the First World War and the Easter Rising. Thinking of Guillemont and Ginchy, I remember in particular two men – Tom Kettle and Emmet Dalton; one a wise philosopher and poet at 36, the other half that age; one who died and one who lived; two who fought with great heart.
Tom Kettle fought, in the words of his widow Mary, for “Ireland, Christianity, Europe …. (and) a reconciled Ulster”. Dalton fought out of patriotism also but partly as his innocent words reveal, for “the glamour of going to war. I mean at eighteen years of age what do you know?”
Back in June on the 90th anniversary of the battle of Messines Ridge, in the company of Mr. Edwin Poots, the Northern Minister for Culture Arts and Leisure, I visited for the third time the Irish Peace Park at Messines in Belgium. The Park was opened a few years ago by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, His Majesty King Albert and myself, to honour the memory of the men of the 36th Ulster Division and the 16th Irish Division who fought shoulder to shoulder at Messines and Wijschaete in a cause they saw as bigger than themselves and their divisions. Those who worked so hard to create that memorial knew that this troubled and conflict-ridden generation needed to be reintroduced to the voices of those who fell at Guillemont, at Ginchy, at Messines and Wijschaete because their voices would exhort us to use our best endeavours to build the peace, the reconciliation, the better world that they dared to dream of.
This year we saw the welcome re-establishment of the devolved institutions in Northern Ireland under the First and Deputy First Ministers. The First Minister summed up what many of us were feeling on that historic day when he said “how good it will be to be part of a wonderful healing”. Since then we have seen and felt a fresh and energising, new spirit of hope grow, exemplified by the visit of the First Minister along with An Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern to the site of the Battle of the Boyne.
The First Minister has long had an association with this Museum and with championing the memory of those who fought and died at the Somme and other battlefields of the Great War. It is an interest we have in common and I am sure he shares my great satisfaction that over recent years more and more people have found it possible to acknowledge the full reality of what happened and to take pride in the comradeship and courage of the men of the 16th Irish and the 36th Ulster Divisions. And in so doing, we have taken those tragic memories, those names of grandfathers and fathers, brothers and uncles, husbands and sweethearts out of the shoe-boxes in the attic where they had lain in restless uncertainty for decades. We have restored them to the light of respect and of pride so that they have become a powerful, recovered, shared memory and indeed a wonderful healing.
First Minister, I congratulate you and the Deputy First Minister and all your colleagues in the Executive for the tremendous start you have made on your journey of partnership towards a new society in Northern Ireland and a new mood of good neighbourliness across this island.
There could be no better monument to the brave men of Guillemont and Ginchy.