British royal to attend unveiling of Cross of Sacrifice in Glasnevin Cemetery
President Higgins will be
accompanied by His Royal Highness Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent, for the
unveiling of a war memorial Cross of Sacrifice at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin
next Thursday.
The erecting of the cross
marks a further step in the normalising of Ireland’s acknowledgement of her war
dead. The Republic is the only country in the world not to have a Cross of
Sacrifice in cemeteries containing the bodies of 40 or more military personnel
who died while serving with British or other Commonwealth forces during the
first or second World Wars.
The ceremony, which begins
at 12.30 and is open to the public, will be attended by Heather Humphreys,
Minster for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht; Theresa Villiers, the Secretary
of State for Northern Ireland; Dominick Chilcott, the British Ambassador to Ireland;
John Green, chairman of the Glasnevin Trust; and its chief executive, George
McCullough.
Present also will be a
colour party from both the Defence Forces and the British Armed Forces.
The erecting of a Cross of
Sacrifice is a joint project between the Trust and the Commonwealth War Graves
Commission, of which Prince Edward is president. The seven meter tall cross is
made of blue limestone from Threecastles Quarry in Co Kilkenny and has been
made by McKeon Stone of Stradbally in Co Laois.
It follows precisely the
design set by Sir Reginald Blomfield (1856-1942), the British architect who
created the template cross for the War Graves Commission after the first World
War. The stone cross stands on an octagonal platform and has a bronze sword
mounted on its face, blade pointing down.
It has been erected at
Glasnevin’s ceremonial plaza, close to two screen walls on which are carved the
names of Irish people who died in both world wars while serving in British or
Allied forces, and close also to the graves of renowned figures of Irish
nationalism, Charles Steward Parnell, Michael Collins and Eamon de Valera.
Hundreds of Blomfield design
crosses have been erected around the world but not in the south of Ireland.
Edward Madigan, lecturer in
public history and first World War studies at the University of London who
proposed the installation of the Glasnevin cross while Resident Historian at
the CWGC and then led talks with the Irish Government and the Trust, said the
south never got a Cross of Sacrifice after the first War because “the
installation of Crosses of Sacrifice was unwelcome in the political and
cultural climate of the 1920s in what was then the Irish Free State”.
That antipathy has now all
but disappeared.
“We are very proud to have
this cross here as part of our long association with the Commonwealth War Grace
Commission and as a consequence of both the nationalist and unionist traditions
in Ireland realising that all of those men who died in the first World War died
together and for the same reason,” Mr McCullough said yesterday.
The CWGC maintains directly
the graves of 1.7 million servicemen and women who died in both world wars at
23,000 locations in 153 countries and on all continents except Antarctica. In
the Republic, some 3,000 Commonwealth war dead are buried at 670 locations,
with graves in many instances maintained in partnership between the Commission
and the Office of Public Works.
Some 210,000 Irish men and
women served in the British Army during the first World War, with thousands
more serving in allied forces, particularly Canadian and Australian. Up to
50,000 are believed to have died but the precise number is not known. About
100,000 served in British and Allied forces during the second World War and
about 10,000 were killed.
The Cross of Sacrifice is
intended as a monument to them all.
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