WW1 emblem tobe rededicated

The event has been organised as part of the local First world War Commemoration Committee’s programme of remembrance to mark the centenary of the war.

Dignitaries and clergy from both sides of the border will be in attendance at the event, which will include the setting of new memorial plaque to mark the occasion.

The windows were officially unveiled by Rosalind Cecilia Caroline Hamilton, the Duchess of Abercorn on May 27, 1925.

Michael Doherty, Director of the Peace and Reconciliation Group (PRG), which is involved in the initiative, said: “This is a cross-community, cross-border event that’s about remembering all of those from the city and the wider region who were killed in the First World War.

“That’s all of those from the 36th, the 10th and the 16th divisions, which included people from right across Ireland, both north and south.”

Terence McKeegan, an officer at the Waterside Branch of the Royal British Legion, said the rededication fitted with local and national efforts to honour all of those who fought in the First World War.

“The project started out in Bishop Street but has gone out to the surrounding area and across the border to the point where there’s a fifty/fifty mix of people from the Republic and people from the north,” said Mr McKeegan.

Earlier this year the Waterside branch produced a new medal to commemorate those from the Ulster and Irish Divisions who died.

The pin was specifically designed to be inclusive of those from both sides of the Home Rule controversy, who despite their pre-partition domestic differences, found common cause in the war.

Mr McKeegan said the rededication ceremony will be in the same spirit.

“It’s certainly along the same theme as the pin,” said Mr McKeegan. “But that’s part of a four year project for us, something that’s not confined to 2014 only, but for the whole four years, from 2014 up to 2018.”