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The Orange Order Director of Services, Dr. David Hume, has
told an Orange commemoration in Glenarm tonight (July 1st)
that the Battle of the Somme would never be forgotten in the
Protestant community.
Addressing an event organised in Glenarm Orange Hall as part
of the Twelfth Festival in the County Antrim coastal village,
he said that Orangemen were not celebrating the Somme, but
they were honouring the courage and bravery of the men who
fought in the Battle, most particularly those from the 36th
Ulster Division.
"There were attributes displayed at the Somme which
were timeless. Courage, bravery, and honour. Willie MacFadzean,
the first casualty, who was awarded a Victoria Cross posthumously,
gave his young life for his comrades when he threw himself
on unexploded grenades.
"It was a brave thing to go over the top that morning.
There were 16 rows of barbed wire in front of some of those
men. We salute their courage as the North in the USA salutes
the courage of the Blue Line at Gettysburg and the South honours
the memory of The Boys in Grey".
He noted the sense of community loss which came about as
a result of the casualties of the Somme, "As a community
we lost too many young men, too many families were bereaved,
too many wives became widows, parents lost sons, and children
lost fathers. The courage of those who fought there should
never be forgotten. It is easier now for us to commemorate
because the numbness and sadness which were once raw are now
confined to history. We should never forget the Ulster Volunteers
from Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan who could never be replaced
at home and whose loss caused irreparable damage to small
minority Protestant communities there," Dr. Hume said.
"We commemorate their bravery and celebrate their victory.
The victory was not won at the Somme, it was won here, on
Irish soil. The sacrifice of those men meant that public opinion
in the rest of the United Kingdom would not allow a government
to consign the community represented by the 36th Ulster Division
to a political arrangement which it feared would erode and
threaten it.
"The soldiers who fought probably did not understand
or consider the impact that day's battle would have in the
corridors of political power. It would shape the face of modern
Irish history. The foundation of Northern Ireland was laid
in the trenches of the Somme.
We believe that as unionists our whole future as a people
owes something very important to the charge of the 36th Ulster
Division that July morning. Our future within the United Kingdom
was secured by them," said the Orange Order Director
of Services.
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