by Eamonn Mac Dermott, Inishowen Independent
THE Inishowen Friends of Messines group, in a unique
exercise, recently visited graves throughout
Inishowen of service people who died during the two
World Wars.
John McCarter of the group explained the thinking
behind the exercise. He said: “This group started a
commemoration service every year at Fort Dunree to
commemorate all those who went off to World War 1
and never came home.
“We felt that a lot of these people were simply
forgotten about and swept under the carpet.
“We worked along with the Messines Project which was
set up to commemorate Irish people who fought
especially in World War I. We should remember that
over half a million Irish people went to war and
more than 50,000 never came home.” |
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He added: “We decided
that we would remember those whose graves were
registered by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission
of which there are some 118 in the Inishowen area.
“We just wanted it to be the proper thing to do.
Many of these graves may never have had a visitor as
many of them would have been washed up on our shores
and buried in the nearest cemetery.
“Others their families may be aware |
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John McCarter. |
of where they are
buried but have never had the chance to visit the
grave.”
John McCarter continued: “Considering as how it is
approaching the time when the war dead are
remembered we thought this was as good an
opportunity as any to do this.
“We visited 16 graveyards and a total of 115
graves.”
The largest number of graves is in the cemetery at
Fahan where there are 68 graves but most of them are
victims of the sinking of the Laurentic. The next
highest after that is Cockhill where there are 16
war graves.
John McCarter added: “We were commemorating what
these people died for and in many ways this is the
complete cross community exercise as these are
people of all religions and none.
“This sort of thing is all part of the drive to
create understanding and reconciliation for all
religions.”
The group started their exercise at Christ Church in
Buncrana and then travelled across Inishowen before
concluding at Cockhill. |
