North and South host war memorial services

Remembrance day services were held on both sides of the Border yesterday.

In Dublin, the service held in St Patrick's Cathedral was attended by President Mary McAleese and her husband, Dr Martin McAleese, and the dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, the Very Rev Robert MacCarthy. The President laid a wreath bearing a Tricolour, while Maj Gen David O'Morchoe, president of the Royal British Legion in Ireland, laid a poppy wreath.

The rector of Enniscorthy, the Rev Chris Longar, told the service that war could be an effective and relatively swift way of dealing with evil, but only if used as a last resort and under controlled conditions.

Mr Long, who previously served as chaplain with the RAF, said war gave rise to "huge conflicting emotions" because service personnel were proud to be part of a courageous country that was facing up to a great evil, yet war involved atrocities.

Mr Long said service personnel tended to screen out the most vivid memories of war. "They don't talk about the screams of the dying or about the stench of decomposing flesh. It's hard to talk about the real cost of war."

Mr Long said people needed to know what war was about and the sacrifices that were made so that they could live in freedom and peace.

The first lesson at the St Patrick's Cathedral service was read by Frank Robinson, chairman of the Royal British Legion in Ireland, and the Norwegian ambassador, Truls Hanevold, read the second.

The Government was represented by Minister for European Affairs Dick Roche. Also there were British ambassador David Reddaway, Assistant Garda Commissioner Al McHugh and GOC Eastern Brigade, Brig Denis Murphy.

In Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, bomb hoaxers tried to disrupt the Remembrance Day service at the cenotaph on the 20th anniversary of the IRA bombing there. A large area was sealed off for several hours while searches were carried out after a bomb warning in the middle of the night. The all-clear was given in time to allow hundreds of people, including survivors and relatives of those killed in the 1987 bombing, to go ahead with the ceremony. A two-minute silence was observed and wreaths laid at the cenotaph where 11 people died.

A security alert was mounted in Newry after a loud bang was heard as crowds were dispersing at the end of their act of remembrance. A device was packed into a glass jar and stuffed down the barrel of an ornamental cannon outside the City Hall close to the cenotaph.

Earlier yesterday, the UCD Literary and Historical Society revived the tradition of laying a wreath in honour of its auditor Thomas Kettle, who was killed at the Somme in September 1916.

(Additional reporting: PA)