Thousands gather in France to mark Battle of the Somme

In France, thousands of people have been marking the ninetieth anniversary of the start of the Battle of the Somme today.

Minister for Education Mary Hanafin represented the Irish Government at the commemorations there.

Almost twenty-thousand soldiers fell on the bloodiest day of World War One.

As Peter Francis from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission explained, the soldiers who fought on the side of the British, came from many places:

“They came from all over England, indeed all over the Commonwealth,” he said today

“The Newfoundland regiment for example, it took them almost a year to raise the regiment and it ceased to exist within about thirty minutes on the 1st of July 1916.”