Day of Commemoration - A time to mark war’s futility

To mark the National Day of Commemoration yesterday, President Mary McAleese and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern participated in the ceremony at the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham in memory of all Irishmen and women who died in wars or on service with the UN.

Representatives from the churches — the Catholic, Church of Ireland, Methodist and Presbyterian churches — were represented at the multi-faith commemoration, which was televised live.

Those who sacrificed so much should be remembered not as some kind of glorification of conflict but as a reminder of the futility of war.