Great War commemoration put the spotlight on our shared inheritance

I WAS very privileged to be invited to attend the first official commemoration ceremony for all Irishmen who died in the Battle of the Somme and throughout World War I.

It was altogether a very moving and unifying occasion which embraced all traditions and allegiances on this island.

My own family link to the events of that troubled period in Ireland and Europe is personified in the life and death of my Uncle Mick, after whom I was named. Like so many other young men at the time he enlisted in the British army in 1914 and served for some time in the Great War before returning home to join Óglaigh na hÉireann after 1916. In the event, he was one of the first volunteers in north Tipperary to be killed in action in July 1920.