By Sean Ryan - 24 September, 2017
The Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, Dr Eamon Martin has said that Ireland’s history of conflict meant many Catholics killed in the First World War were not “adequately” remembered.
Archbishop Martin made his comments at a special Mass in Inishowen, County Donegal for his great-uncle, Edward Doherty, who was killed at the Battle of Passchendaele. The Mass also remembered the estimated 250 people from the area who were killed during WWI.
Following the Mass at the Church of the Sacred Heart in Muff, the archbishop unveiled a plaque in memory of all those who died during the war at the nearby St Patrick’s Church, Iskaheen.
Archbishop Martin’s granduncle, Edward Doherty, was killed on 19th September 1917 during the Battle of Passchendaele and is buried in Canada Farm Cemetery outside Ypres, Belgium. Edward’s brother Patrick, also signed up and fought in the war, though he survived.
Speaking at the Mass, Archbishop Martin said that the fact that Irish Catholics and Protestants fought together in the first World War had been neglected “perhaps conveniently – by all sides. “People preferred to cling on to a history of difference and separation, rather than recognise and embrace our shared story of common suffering.” Describing visiting his granduncle’s grave in Ypres and then visiting the Island of Ireland Peace Park in Messines, Belgium, he said, “Standing at war memorials, wearing poppies and laying wreaths may not have been part of my tradition or growing up, but remembering, honouring and praying for the dead is important to the practice of my faith”. He added, “In recent years I have grown to respect and understand more fully that, whilst we may remember in different ways, what unites us is so much greater and stronger than anything that is talked up to divide us.”
