John Gilroy (Labour)

I welcome the Minister to the Chamber. We have a great opportunity as we approach the series of anniversaries of the events which led to the foundation of the State and, more important, the formation of the consciousness of the State. It is important we appreciate the historical and personal complexities which steered these events and marked them out as a series of defining moments in the formation of modern Ireland. We must be conscious of the competing views of Irishness and have respect for traditions. We must be careful to allocate due respect to both.

I wish to mention the anniversary to be commemorated on 1 July 1916, which is the commemoration of the Battle of the Somme. The experience of thousands of Irish soldiers on that dreadful morning is seared into the consciousness of the nation. In the first few hours of the morning, soldiers from the 16th (Irish) Division, who were Catholic to almost a man and were drawn from the National Volunteers, fought alongside the 36th (Ulster) Division made up of men from Tyrone, Derry, Fermanagh and Donegal, along with Tyneside and Liverpool Irish, and suffered 9,000 casualties. The men of the Inniskillings 36th Division suffered particularly bad losses that morning with 2,000 men killed and another 3,500 wounded. These were the great grandsons of the same regiment which fought under a different name and stood before Napoleon's cannons 100 years previously and suffered casualties of 500 out of 700. These were all Irish men drawn from a handful of counties and small towns throughout rural parts of Northern Ireland.

Our views of militarism have changed greatly in the intervening time and it is not appropriate to celebrate war but, as Senator Bradford stated, it is appropriate to commemorate it. We need to be aware the men who fought and died at the Somme and during the First World War believed they were fighting for something greater than themselves. This complexity needs to be acknowledged. It is only in recent years we have even acknowledged the existence of these men and the approach of the anniversaries associated with the First World War offers us a wonderful opportunity to put this to right and I look forward to it.