Battle of the Somme: Centenary

Lord Empey Excerpts

Monday 14th March 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Empey (UUP)]

My Lords, my noble friend Lord Lexden as usual has done us all a great service by drawing our attention to one of the most significant events of the First World War. Mention has been made of the 36th Ulster Division and the 16th Irish Division. It is true to say that there is virtually not a school, town or village hall that does not have a memorial, some of them very substantial in size.

Let me put the thing into perspective. We have an Army today which I think is planned to reach something like 85,000. In proportionate terms, the losses incurred by the 36th Ulster Division on 1 and 2 July 1916 were equivalent in population terms to the obliteration of the entire British Army in one 24-hour period. That is the scale of the losses; they are almost inconceivable and unimaginable. It is akin to something like Hiroshima taking place in one day. But that did not include those who came back from the conflict as broken men—and, indeed, the brave women who served them in the tents and on the battlefields suffered greatly as well from what they had seen.

To follow what was said by my noble friend Lord Bew, however dreadful the conflict was, many of the soldiers fighting on those battlefields were from Ireland and came from opposing traditions. For a long time afterwards, and indeed until comparatively recently, the sacrifice of the men who came from the Irish Republic was barely recognised. But I am pleased to say that things have changed. Something that was a most horrible and divisive issue has gradually become a source of some form of reconciliation. Irish Ministers now come to Belfast City Hall on 1 July to join the rest of us in the commemoration ceremony there. An Irish Prime Minister now attends the Enniskillen memorial on Remembrance Sunday. Recognition is taking place on both sides of the border, and this is a small crumb of comfort that has come from such a dreadful set of circumstances. I hope and pray that in all our endeavours, in our foreign policy and in other areas as we go forward, never again will we allow the circumstances to arise that demand such a terrible sacrifice.