Brussels briefing

Recalling the 1745 victory on Fontenoy

Amid preparations to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the First World War, Ireland is reaching back a little further, to 1745, and is restoring the Fontenoy Cross in Belgium.

It marks the site of a famous French victory over the Dutch and British in which the only flag captured by the French army was by the Irish regiment of Bulkeley, in the presence of Louis XV and the Dauphin.