Hundreds of people filled St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, this afternoon (Sunday November 9) for the annual National Service of Remembrance. The service was televised live on RTE for the first time and the President was represented by his Aide de Camp, Col Brendan McAndrew.
Also present was the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Christy Burke, the Tánaiste, Minister Joan Burton, members of the Diplomatic Corps, representatives of the Defence Forces and many veterans and their families. The Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Revd Dr Michael Jackson and Roman Catholic Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin, the Most Revd Raymond Field were in attendance.
The congregation was welcomed by the Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral, the Very Revd Victor Stacey and the service was introduced by the Dean’s Vicar, the Revd Charles Mullen. Lessons were read by Tom Burke, MBE, Chairman of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers’ Association and Peter Murtagh, journalist with the Irish Times.
Wreaths were laid at the Tree of Remembrance in the cathedral’s north transept by Col Brendan McAndrew, the Tánaiste and Geoffrey Medcalf, national Vice Chairman of the Royal British Legion.
The address was given by the Revd Peter Rutherford, Rector of Julianstown and South Drogheda, a former Assistant Chaplain General of HM Forces. He spoke of the people from every parish, county and city in Ireland of different social and political backgrounds who fought in the First World War in which 200,000 Irishmen served and at least 35,000 lost their lives.
This was war as never experienced before, he said, describing it as a “totally mechanised conflict that shattered the illusion and optimism of western civilisation”.
However, he continued: “Thankfully, 100 years on from the start of that conflict, it is now possible for people throughout our island, of whatever political or religious tradition, to acknowledge the courage, bravery and sacrifice that so many made as part of that terrible, and primarily European, conflict: not to glorify war, but to recognise its cost”.
[Mr Rutherford’s address will be available on this website in the coming days.]
The service is also available to view on the RTE Player at: http://www.rte.ie/player/ie/show/10342738/
Photo caption: An Tánaiste, Minister Joan Burton, lays a wreath at the Tree of Remembrance in St Patrick’s Cathedral. (Photo: Patrick Hugh Lynch)