Ray Butler (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would like to follow up on Senator Mulherin's comments on the Great War memorial events that were held all over the country last weekend. It was fantastic to see the Taoiseach attend an event in Northern Ireland. I would also like to congratulate the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Charlie Flanagan, for remembering the French people who lost their lives in Paris one year ago.

I was in Trim, County Meath, laying a wreath on behalf of the Taoiseach and the people of Ireland. I would like to thank the Trim commemorative committee for its wonderful work and the other committees all over the country. We have come a long way in this country in remembering our war dead. I echo Senator Mulherin's comments about funding for the commemorative committees which are operating with very small budgets. It would be great to see some funding being made available to them.

When I was growing up in the 1970s and 1980s my family had a supermarket in Kells. There was a photograph of my great uncle, Peter Laffey, on the wall of the mineral shed because my parents were afraid to display it in our house. As the song goes, "In an old photograph, torn battered and stained, and faded to yellow in a brown leather frame". He was 25 when he died in France and I was honoured to honour him on Sunday as well as all of the other Irish men and women who lost their lives in the two world wars.