The deep divide between Catholics and Protestants makes the coming together to honour the dead on both sides fraught with problems.

In war, all battles are bloody and, for the many in the wrong place at the wrong time, fatal.

A Tipperary family’s collection of photos offers a glimpse into life a century ago, writes John G Dwyer.

Yesterday was World Toilet Day, a battleground for everyone from the Suffragettes to the freedom riders, who have fought for access to the bathroom for people of all persuasions, races and genders. Caomhan Keane reports.

In ‘Breakdown’ Taylor Downing attempts to unpack the obfuscation surrounding the syndrome named shellshock in 1916 and post-traumatic stress disorder in 2016. 

Your letters, your views...

Learning from the lessons of history is at the heart of Hughie O’Donoghue’s work, writes Alan O’Riordan

The rift between Fine Gael and the Independent Alliance widened last night after Social Protection Minister Leo Varadkar accused his Government partners of risking the coalition’s stability over the recent abortion bill controversy.

Political leaders and military veterans are due to gather in Dublin tomorrow to commemorate the Battle of the Somme.

EVEN if it was just some sad, drunken gobdaw who threw the wreaths placed on Cork’s First World War memorial earlier this week to mark the July 1 opening of the Battle of the Somme and to remember the estimated 4,000 Corkmen who died in that war into the Lee it was a dispicable, uncomprehending act of ignorance and vandalism.

One hundred years ago in the poppy fields of Northern France, July 1, 1916, saw the single most hellish day of armed conflict, with the start of the Battle of the Somme.

One week after Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, British prime minister David Cameron and members of the royal family were standing side-by-side with France’s president to celebrate their historic alliance at the centenary of the deadliest battle of World War I.

French President François Hollande is to visit Ireland later this month, it emerged yesterday.

The centenary of the Battle of the Somme recalls the futility of war, writes Ryle Dwyer

As we enter the month of December 2015, I remember my father who died 50 years ago on December 5.

The French President Francois Hollande will visit Ireland next year.

The UK and Irish governments have urged political leaders in the North to intensify efforts to resolve the welfare dispute that has put the future of power-sharing at risk.

Stephen Sandford Irish Academic Press, €24.95 

Many Irishmen working in England at the outbreak of World War 1 enlisted in English regiments. One was Thomas Kedian, of Moneymore, Ballyhaunis, Co. Mayo, my grand-uncle. 

British Private John Parr set off on his reconnaissance bike on the lookout for German troops amid the rolling farmland and woods south of Brussels in August 1914.

ENGLAND: Half of people in Britain do not know the First World War began 100 years ago next month, according to The Daily Star.

Future historians proved their worth in digging up the past in their efforts to win prizes in an all-island schools competition.

The planned attendance of members of the British Royal family at the centenary commemorations of the 1916 Rising has excited comment and opposition, not least from Fergus Finlay (Opinion, April 15).

Sixty nine men left Blackpool, in Cork City, to fight in World War 1 and never returned. Local historian Mark Cronin’s book, Blackpool to the Front, tells their story, which is echoed in towns across Ireland.

The youngest Briton to fight in the First World War was just 12 years old — but Sidney Lewis’ identity remained a secret for almost a century until the chance discovery of faded documents revealed his extraordinary story.

Such, Such, Were the Joys An Essay

Unknown heroes of the Irish Volunteers have been identified in graves in Glasnevin cemetery as part of a new commemoration.

The Taoiseach Enda Kenny and the Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore attended Remembrance Sunday events in Northern Ireland yesterday.

Almost 100 years after they were lost to their families and their country, half of them never accorded the dignity of a funeral, 1,100 Irish men and women who lost their lives in the first world war were remembered in a ceremony which will ensure their names will never be lost.

A member of England's royal family has laid a wreath at a memorial to rebels who fought and died in the 1916 Easter Rising.

SATURDAY

NOT so very long ago, marking, much less celebrating, the achievements of the British army was almost a taboo subject in Ireland.

IN an all-Ireland reconciliation move, the Government has signalled it could take part in Belfast’s official ceremonies to mark the battle of the Somme and Remembrance Sunday.

The Government has signalled it would likely take up an offer to participate in the Somme and Remembrance Sunday commemorations in the North this year.

The Viral Storm: The Dawn of a New Pandemic Age

THE indefatigable Tom Cooper has written an important and uncomfortable letter (March 1) on the subject of the cynical exploitation of the Irish war dead in the First World War.

All of us in our own way have been forced to come to terms with the new reality whether in the private or public sector. And the pain is only starting. Wait till Mary Hanafin tries to shave €1bn plus from the social welfare bill in the autumn. It’s not the time for fainthearted ministers.

IT IS the most quoted statistic in the annals of British military combat.

Belfast’s “peace walls” are getting an artistic facelift, it was revealed today.

President Mary McAleese tonight met First Minister the Rev Ian Paisley at a war museum in the North.

YET again Europe was in the throes of war. Volunteers from every street and parish in Ireland died in their thousands.