The First World War - Honourable motives

THE 11th hour of the 11th day in the 11th month resonates across the decades like few other descriptions of a moment in time.

In 1918 it defined the end of the First World War, the first modern, industrialised multi-national conflict, one that left millions dead, many more millions without either a home or a homeland.

No other conflict involved so many Irish participants. More than 200,000 men enlisted in Ireland. They were not the only Irish in the trenches as tens of thousands of expatriate Irishmen joined British, colonial or American forces. There can hardly be a family in this republic that was not in some way marked by the conflict.

It was an appalling, brutal conflict that laid the foundations for the modern world. Those who enlisted did so with the highest of motives and should be remembered and honoured in that context.