Re-membering our history
Somme Commemoration
Saint Matthias’ Church, 7.30 am, 1st July 2006
“Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory?” Haggai 2:3
During the years I lived in the North, I developed a dread of the 1st July. It was an occasion for youths in lurid uniforms to march through the streets, beating drums loudly and playing flutes badly. It was an opportunity for aggressive displays of sectarian spirit and seemed little connected with the events of July 1916 that were supposedly commemorated.
Remembrance when I was …