WIT to commemorate 90th anniversary of end of WWI

THE 90th anniversary of the end of the first world war will be marked with a series of commemorative events at Waterford Institute of Technology next week.

A memorial plaque dedicated to the men and women from the south-east of Ireland who served in the war will be unveiled and gifted to the city of Waterford during the day of commemoration. The event on Tuesday next is open to all.

Guests are invited to assemble in the chapel at the institute’s College Street campus from 10.30am for a ceremony that will be opened by WIT director Professor Kieran Byrne. The Memorial to the Fallen ceremony will then be introduced by history and cultural studies lecturer Alice McDermott.

There will be an ecumenical blessing of the Irish flag by Fr David Keating, chaplain, WIT, and Christine O’Dowd Smythe, French lecturer and ordinand to the ministry in the Church of Ireland. The flag will then be raised and lowered, and The Last Post will be played. A roll call will be made of the men and women from the south-east of Ireland who served in the war and who are featured on the memorial plaque. As part of the ceremony, a selection of first World War poetry will be read by Dr John Ennis, head of the school of humanities at WIT.

The roll of honour, together with the contents of the institute’s Memorial to the Fallen museum, will then be presented to the city of Waterford for public display. The ceremony will conclude with addresses from local historian Julian Walton WLRFM journalist Mark Power and Ms McDermott.