Wise words - Macron warns on nationalism

Millions of words have been written over the last few weeks about the loss, legacy and contemporary relevance of the First World War. Many more were written about how we should mark it and learn its great lessons. That process continued yesterday in Paris when 70 world leaders gathered.

American president Donald Trump bravely faced the rain. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar joined Russia president Vladimir Putin, German chancellor Angela Merkel, and dozens of monarchs, presidents and prime ministers to hear French president Emmanuel Macron mark the moment guns fell silent across Europe a century ago.

The central theme of his address was to warn about the fragility of peace and the dangers of nationalism.

As we prepare to mark domestic centenaries, it should not be necessary to underline the dangers of blinkered nationalism. Sadly, that is not the case.

Reflecting on that issue would be a wonderful way to celebrate the lives of the 210,000 Irish in the Great War and their compatriots whose very different choices laid the ground for the forthcoming Irish centenaries.