President Michael D. Higgins to attend Somme commemoration
Date: Thu 30th Jun, 2016 | 17:19
30 June 2016
On 1 July, President Michael D. Higgins will attend the commemorations of the centenary of the start of the Battle of the Somme, on 1 July 1916.
The President will be accompanied by his wife Sabina Higgins and by Heather Humphreys TD, Minister for Regional Development, Rural Affairs, Arts and the Gaeltacht, representing the government.
The President will represent Ireland at the joint UK-France commemoration at the Thiepval Memorial of the Missing of the Somme.
On arrival, the President will be greeted by the French Prime Minister Manuel Valls and British Prime Minister David Cameron. Several members of the British Royal Family, including Prince Charles and his wife Camilla as well as Prince William and his wife Catherine, will also be in attendance. Germany will be represented by former President Horst Köhler.
Some 500 Irish citizens are expected to be among those in attendance.
The ceremony takes place at the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, which was built between 1928 and 1932 to honour the 72,195 UK and South African soldiers whose bodies were never recovered following the battle.
The monument was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, who also designed the Irish National War Memorial at Islandbridge, Dublin.