Finally, our war heroes gain respect

Fitting tributes

Nothing could be more fitting than yesterday’s laying of a wreath at the Cenotaph in London by Ireland’s ambassador to Britain. When Dan Mulhall stepped forward, it was the first such gesture since 1946 on behalf of the Irish people in remembrance of those who died in two World Wars.

It was entirely appropriate that later conflicts were also remembered, including the atrocities of the North where, for the first time, both the Taoiseach and Tánaiste attended remembrance ceremonies, Enda Kenny at Enniskillen and Joan Burton at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, where the war dead have been recalled each year since 1919.