North East PEACE III Partnership experience Messines
North East PEACE III Partnership at the Memorial Tower to the 36th Ulster Division
A shared history programme brought the North East PEACE III Partnership to Messines and the Somme for a three day learning programme about nationalist and unionist soldiers who fought side by side in the First World War.
North East PEACE III Partnership at the 16th Irish Division Memorial Cross
Representatives from the North East PEACE III Partnership visited Belgium in April where they heard about soldiers from an Ulster Unionist background and an Irish Nationalist background fighting together in the First World War. This successful initiative, delivered by the International School for Peace Studies aims to further reconciliation between communities in the North East. As part of the North East PEACE III programme, the Messines Experience has so far brought seven cross community groups out to Belgium to participate in the programme.
The Partnership representatives visited the front line at the Somme Battlefields where they experienced a moving account of the extreme circumstances that the soldiers fought in. The group of fourteen representatives also visited a number of moving memorials including the Newfoundland Memorial at Beaumont Hamel and the Canadian Memorial at Vimy Ridge. The memorials for the 36th Ulster Division at the Ulster Tower and the 16th Irish Division at Guillemont, invoked an emotional understanding about how the two traditionally opposed divisions fought side by side in the face of a common enemy in World War I.
Visits were also made to the Flemish Battlefields; the grave of Willie Redmond, an injured Irish nationalist Major in the 16th Irish Division who was helped on the battlefield by a young Ulster unionist soldier. The Island of Ireland Peace Park re-inforced the feeling of unity among the group. It is a place where the joint history of soldiers from the two communities is formally recognised through the impressive Peace Tower. The programme also included a poignant trip to a German graveyard at Langemark where the group paid tribute to those German soldiers who also lost their lives on the battle field.
A trip to the large Tyne Cot cemetery was included towards the end of the journey, where the group began to pay their final respects. To finish the learning experience, a group of four North East PEACE III representatives from both communities joined together to lay a wreath for those who died during the great war at the ‘Last Post’ Ceremony at Menin Gate in Ypres. The laying of the wreath demonstrated unity among the group and honoured the memory of those soldiers from both communities who fought side by side.
North East PEACE III Partnership at the Island of Ireland Peace Park
