Royal British Legion’s Annual Service of Remembrance – Saint Patrick’s Cathedral – 10 November 2024
President Michael D Higgins attended the Annual Service of Remembrance commemorating Ireland’s war dead in The National Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St Patrick, Dublin on Sunday, 10 November, 2024.
During the service, President Higgins and Lieutenant-Colonel Ken Martin, President of the Royal British Legion (Republic of Ireland District), laid wreaths at the War Memorial in the north transept, escorted by Mr Paul Stephenson, Chairman Royal British Legion (Republic of Ireland District).
The service was led by the Dean, the Very Revd William Morton, and sung by the Cathedral Choir. Lessons were read by Colonel Seán Grant, Defence Attaché of the United Kingdom, and Mr David Gibson Brabazon, Midlands Branch, Royal British Legion (Republic of Ireland District).
The exhortation was led by Mr Paul Stephenson, Chairman Royal British Legion (Republic of Ireland District), and was followed by the Last Post, The Silence, Reveille and the Kohima Epitaph.
The sermon was preached by The Reverend D.W. Oxley, B.A., B.Th,, Prebendary of St Audeon’s.
Attendance included the Lord-Mayor of Dublin, representatives of the Irish Government and Opposition; the Ambassador of the United Kingdom; the Garda Commissioner; GOC 2 Brigade; FOC NS; and representatives of Veterans Associations and Regimental Associations.
Brigadier-General Paul Fry (Retd) represented The Military Heritage of Ireland Trust CLG.
Directors in attendance included Mr Philip Hamell (representing the Leopardstown Park Hospital), Lieutenant-Colonel (Retd) Ken Martin (President Royal British Legion, Republic of Ireland District, and Brigadier-General Paul Pakenham (Retd) (representing the Irish National War Memorial Trust.
Books of Remembrance
During the opening procession, one volume of the Books of Remembrance was carried, and laid in the north transept. where it remained throughout the Choral Evensong.
In 1919, the Irish National War Memorial Committee (later designated “Trust”) was established to erect a permanent war memorial. Whereas different locations and settings were suggested and rejected over the next decade, the Committee commissioned an interim project. The project, consisting of eight volumes, records the names of Irish soldiers who was killed in the First World War. The volumes were completed, designed, and produced during one of Ireland’s most turbulent periods: the War of Independence (1919 – 1921); and the Civil War (1922 – 1923).
The Books of Remembrance have the effect of humanising the losses of the First World War.
The Books of Remembrance consisting of eight volumes and 3,200 pages, lists the names of 49,435 Irish soldiers, recording personal details: Name, Rank, Unit, Age, Home, and Date of Death. In 1931, one hundred Books of Remembrance (each of eight volumes) were printed, costing the Memorial Committee £5,000.
Recent research has located thirty-five Books of Remembrance, fifteen in Ireland, ten in Northern Ireland. and the remainder in England, Scotland, Wales, Belgium, Vatican City, Australia, and in the USA (Library of Congress, Washington).
The Memorial Committee commissioned Harry Clarke for the border decoration. He created seven different designs which were repeated and reversed throughout, together with a front page and a last page, sixteen different arrangements in total. Silhouettes of battle scenes and unit insignia, are mixed with drawings from Celtic mythology.
The Irish National War Memorial Trust digitised the Books of Remembrance in 1995. A digitised version can be viewed in the North East Bookroom of the Irish National War Memorial Gardens in Islandbridge. During the period 2012 – 2015, the Books of Remembrance, on permanent display in the South East Bookroom, underwent a complete conservation process.
In 2014, the Books of Remembrance were made searchable online, through a new digitisation effort which was a collaboration of Google, the In Flanders Fields Museum, and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Featured photograph courtesy of Patrick Hugh Lynch.
