THE SINN Féin Lord Mayor of Belfast laid a laurel wreath yesterday at the war memorial of the Belfast City Hall, to remember the unionists and nationalists soldiers who fall at the Battle of the Somme in 1916.
Tom Hartley, accompanied by some of his councillors, observed a short silence at the cenotaph, in a separate ceremony held at 9am.
Two hours later the official ceremony took place with the arrival of the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment followed by representatives of the DUP, the Orange Order, and war veterans who placed the poppy wreaths at the memorial.
Mr Hartley, the second Sinn Féin mayor to commemorate the deaths of soldiers from the 16th (Irish) division, said he understood that many from the nationalist tradition have felt “alienated” from the commemoration because of the British symbolism involved.
“But Irish soldiers from Belfast were engaged in the British Ulster Division and it is important that the nationalist community is able to remember and engage with this,” he added.
DUP Environment Minister Sammy Wilson deplored the fact that the sacrifice of these soldiers had been ignored and added he was happy that the Battle of the Somme was now seen as part of both communities’ shared history.
“The sacrifice was ignored not only in Northern Ireland but also with the Irish Government. Here we have focused on the 36th (unionist) division but in Ireland they didn’t want to acknowledge the 16th division,” he added.
The battle of the Somme that raged from July 1st 1916 until November 1916 saw the deaths of 10,000 soldiers from the Ulster and Irish divisions.
Nearly half of them – 45 per cent – were from the 16th (Irish) Division. They had joined the battle in September 1916 to support the 36th (Ulster) Division.