Taoiseach to attend wreath-laying ceremony in Enniskillen

Taoiseach Micheál Martin TD will be among the attendees at Sunday’s annual Remembrance Day ceremonies in Enniskillen.

The Taoiseach will lay a wreath at the Cenotaph in the Co Fermanagh town before attending a remembrance service in Saint Macartin’s Cathedral.

This year is 33rd anniversary of the IRA bombing of Enniskillen in which 11 people were killed with a 12th victim, Ronnie Hill, who was in a coma, dying 13 years later.

In 2012, Enda Kenny began a tradition of the taoiseach being represented at Remembrance Day ceremonies in Enniskillen.

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This year’s ceremonies will be severely affected due to the restrictions imposed for Covid-19.

Seating in the cathedral will be restricted to limited number of invited guests representing the VIPs, dignitaries and special guests, bugler and piper. A limited number of parishioners will be able to attend.

The preacher will be the Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, the Most Revd John McDowell, and the service will be streamed live on the Enniskillen Cathedral website enniskillencathedral.com.

The Dean of the Diocese of Clogher, the Very Rev Kenneth Hall, welcomed the Taoiseach’s visit, saying it was a sign of outreach in the community in Fermanagh.

“The visit is held with great importance as it gives a visible expression to community connections here. Each year the Taoiseach comes to affirm us as a community, to reach out to us as a community, and to show sympathy and solidarity with a community that has suffered dreadfully at the hand of terrorism,” he said.

“Like the Queen and the President, he comes in friendship. It is a reaching out, wishing to reach past the barriers and suspicions that the years constructed.”

The British Legion are organising the wreath laying at the Cenotaph in Enniskillen before the service in the cathedral but the public have been advised to stay away to avoid gatherings, the diocese said.

Ahead of Remembrance Sunday, the leaders of Ireland’s main churches issued a joint video message.

Filmed separately in their studies, offices and places of worship last week, the leaders of the Roman Catholic, Church of Ireland, Methodist and Presbyterian Churches in Ireland, and the Irish Council of Churches, recalled the sacrifice made during conflict and lamented the loss of life.

They also prayed for those who had lost loved ones to coronavirus and have not been able to grieve fully during the restrictions on church services.

The video was recorded by Rt Rev Dr David Bruce, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland; Most Rev John McDowell, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland; Rev Dr Thomas McKnight,President of the Methodist Church in Ireland; Catholic Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland Dr Eamon Martin; and Very Rev Dr Ivan Patterson, president of the Irish Council of Churches.