Kenny and Cameron to visit war graves and memorials

Taoiseach Enda Kenny and British prime minister David Cameron will this morning visit first World War graves and memorials in Flanders, Belgium.

The event, the first such joint visit to Flanders by a taoiseach and prime minister, is being undertaken as part of the decade of centenary commemorations to mark the foundation of the State.

It has been cast by the Government as a further milestone in the deepening of the relationship between Ireland and Britain.

The two leaders will pay their respects at several locations where soldiers in British uniform, many of them Irish, are buried.

Their meeting in Flanders comes ahead of a two-day summit of EU leaders which begins this afternoon in Brussels.

Mr Kenny and Mr Cameron will visit the Island of Ireland Peace Park at Messines, the official memorial to the 50,000 Irish war dead.

They will also visit the grave of nationalist politician William Redmond, MP for the Irish Parliamentary Party.

While previous taoisigh have been to the Messines memorial, Mr Kenny will be the first to visit Redmond’s grave, Wytschaete, Menin Gate and Tyne Cot cemetery.