A delegation from Roscommon County Council will today be in Belgium to visit the graves of young men from the county who died in the first World War.
Led by the Mayor of Roscommon Cllr John Kelly and Roscommon county manager John Tiernan, it is the first time such official recognition has been paid to the 317 men from Roscommon who were killed in that war.
Also taking part will be Col Seán Kilbride of 4 Western Brigade. There in a personal capacity, he, Brig Gen Padraig O'Callaghan, officer commanding Western Brigade, and Army Chief of Staff Lieut Gen Dermot Earley all played for the Roscommon senior football team in the late 1970s.
Accompanying Mayor Kelly will be Councillors Charlie Hopkins, Michael Creaton, Anthony Geraghty, John Connor, Gerry Garvey, Tony Waldron and Luke 'Ming' Flanagan.
The delegation will stay in the Irish College at Louvain which was founded in 1607 by Fr Florence Conry, a Franciscan priest from Stroksestown, Co Roscommon.
A separate Roscommon County Council delegation visited Louvain last November to mark the 400th anniversary of the Irish College there.
Today the delegation will visit Ypres, the museum at Passchendaele and the German cemetery at Langemark.
At Tyne Cot they will visit one of the mine craters remaining from June 7th, 1917, and five of which were in sectors controlled by Irish divisions.
The delegation will take part in a wreath-laying ceremony at Messines this evening, before returning to Ypres for a Last Post ceremony.
The Irish College at Louvain was one of approximately 34 Irish colleges established across Europe in penal times. There the font for the printing of Irish was developed, based on the handwriting of one of the Franciscan friars.
It set a standard for Irish printing for 350 years. The first dictionary in Irish was compiled there and Irish grammar was rationalised and simplified.
It was also where the Annals of the Four Masters was compiled. A history of Ireland from its first recorded occupation by mankind, it was based on original manuscripts passed down through the generations.
The Flight of the Earls brought the O'Neills and the O'Donnells to Louvain, where they remained through the winter of 1607.
In 1983 the Irish Franciscans made the college available for development as a secular resource for both Northern Ireland and the Republic.
