Somme anniversary - Time to face up to Great War legacy

HISTORY, so it is said, is defined by the songs of the victors. And that is one reason why, as we approach the 90th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme next Saturday, more attention is given to a republican hymn in the shape of a film produced by an Englishman about the War of Independence than to a conflict in which immeasurably more Irishmen fought and died.

That we commemorate the Irish dead of the Great War — men who were for the most part brave nationalists who believed they were helping their country — in a lukewarm fashion is not something which does Ireland great credit.

That their memory is less celebrated and marked than the Easter Rising and the conflict of 1919-1922 is understandable. But not commendable. It is helpful that the Government is to mark the occasion for the first time this week with a commemoration ceremony in the National War Memorial Gardens at Islandbridge. And it is long overdue.