Belfast commemorations: Hundreds of people gathered in sweltering sunshine outside Belfast City Hall on Saturday morning as the SDLP Lord Mayor Pat McCarthy and numerous other dignitaries laid wreaths at the adjoining cenotaph during the Belfast Somme commemoration.
Shortly before the ceremony began at 11.05am, Belfast City councillors met in the council chamber to pass a motion commemorating the men of the 36th (Ulster) Division who fought and died at the Somme. Over 2,000 men from the division died on the first day of battle.
All parties were represented at this meeting, although Sinn Féin did not join Mr McCarthy, councillors, politicians, clergy, serving and former British military personnel, Orange Order members, and others when they paraded in solemn procession to the cenotaph for the wreath-laying ceremony.
At the cenotaph, Mr McCarthy, a former republican internee, read out the motion that was earlier adopted, recording the councillors' "feelings of gratitude to the brave men of the 36th (Ulster) Division, who, by their glorious conduct in that battle, made an imperishable name for themselves and their province, and whose heroism will never be forgotten so long as the British Commonwealth lasts".
A guard of honour of the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment assembled at the cenotaph while music was played by the North Irish Territorial Army Band.
All main churches, including the Catholic Church, were represented. After the reading of the motion, Methodist minister Rev Donald Kerr said the hundreds present "travelled in imagination" back 90 years to the fields of northern France.
Said Rev Kerr, "We hear the stillness of anticipation and fear before battle. We then hear the dreadful and tremendous noise of combat. We give thanks for every sign of courage and human caring expressed by those from this city and those from around these islands. We grieve the loss of precious human lives."
The first wreath was laid by Lady Carswell, representing Queen Elizabeth, while Lord Rooker laid a wreath on behalf of the British government. Along with those wreaths laid by the politicians and military people, a number of wreaths were also laid by old soldiers' associations.
Ian Paisley jnr, who was one of the DUP representatives at the ceremony, criticised Sinn Féin councillors for not gathering at the cenotaph. "They are not here because they hate Protestants; they hate the Protestant community; they hate the memory of the Protestant community; and they will do everything to undermine that community," he said.
Former Sinn Féin lord mayor Alex Maskey, who in 2002 in a separate ceremony laid a wreath at the Belfast cenotaph, rejected such claims. He said the party was in the chamber for the vote on the motion "when there were as many nationalists and unionists present".
He said Sinn Féin did not go to the cenotaph for a number of reasons, primarily because of the ceremony's "British military format which excludes people from my tradition". Mr Maskey also regretted that the motion only commemorated the men of the Ulster Division who died, rather than all the Irish who died at the Somme.
