WW1 The Western Front with Ronan McGreevy

Once in Brussels, check into your hotel. You will then travel to Messines to pay a sobering visit to the Island of Ireland Peace Park, a symbol of reconciliation inaugurated in 1998 following the Good Friday Agreement. View the Battle of Messines Ridge and the Pool of Peace. Visit the Wytschaete Military Cemetery in Wijtschate, Belgium to see the memorial to the 16th (Irish) Division.

Visit the two neighboring road markers to be reminded of how the 36th (Ulster) and 16th (Irish) Divisions cooperated throughout the conflict. Visit the new Willie Redmond and John Meeke memorial that is next to Wytschaete Cemetery.

This evening, experience the moving Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres. One of the most visited memorials on the Western Front, it commemorates 54,588 missing soldiers who died in the Ypres Salient. Every evening at 8pm, traffic stops and silence falls as the poignant “Last Post” is sounded in their honour, a timeless act of remembrance that has continued since 1928.

Today you will go to Notre-Dame-De-International Lorette’s WWI Memorial, known as the Ring of Remembrance. Check out the names of the 576,000 troops from all lands who lost their lives in northern France during the conflict. Visit the adjacent French national memorial to the 1.4 million country’s fallen as well.

From Herlies, travel to Rue Du Bois. Visit the Le Touret Memorial to see the memorialised names of the 127 members of the Royal Irish Regiment whose remains were never discovered. Visit the Portuguese and Indian war memorials before going to the location of the Last General Absolution of the Munsters at Rue du Bois. Visit the monument to the Irish fallen at the Battle of Le Pilly.

Visit Lieutenant John Kipling’s tomb and see how his passing influenced his father to pen a book on the Irish Guards’ history. visit to the London Irish Rifles’ New Memorial and The Loos Memorial to the Missing which has the names of thousands of Irish soldiers who lost their lives in that terrible fight.

On this day you travel to the Somme, Visit the Tyneside Irish Memorial at La Boisselle. Visit the Loughnagar Crater, which was destroyed on July 1, 1916, in the morning. Visit the Ulster Tower, a monument honouring the 36th Ulster Division’s soldiers. View actual frontline trenches from the Battle of the Somme at the Newfoundland Memorial. Additionally, check out the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing. Keep going to the 16th (Irish) Division memorial in Guillemont, which commemorates some of the most brutal combat throughout the whole Somme campaign.

Also visit Ginchy & Guillemont Road Cemetery and see the grave of Major Raymond Asquith, the son of the British Prime Minister Herbert Asquit. Also pay visit Herbert Lemass’s tomb; The cousin of former Taoiseach Sean Lemass.

Free time in the morning to visit In Flanders Field Museum or do some shopping. Afterward, meet your guide and head to Poelcappelle Cemetery and visit the grave of John Condon and learn of the real story of the teenager from Waterford who the Commonwealth War Graves Commission claim is the youngest British soldier to die in the First World War. Visit to the Ledwidge Memorial and see the memorial to the poet and nationalist Francis Ledwidge on the exact spot where he fell.

Visit to the New Irish Memorial, the monument commemorates the last time the 16th (Irish) and 36th (Ulster) Divisions fought side by side during the Battle of Passchendaele, when both divisions were utterly destroyed. Visit Tyne Cot Cemetery next, which is the world’s largest cemetery for Commonwealth war burials.

Afterwards travel to Brussels Airport and depart for Dublin Airport.

The following official memorial authorities provide searchable records of soldiers who died during the First World War. These resources may be helpful for those researching relatives commemorated on the Western Front, including Irish soldiers.

All figures and records referenced are published by the respective memorial authorities.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC)

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is the intergovernmental authority responsible for recording and maintaining Commonwealth war graves and memorials worldwide. According to the CWGC, its database allows searches by name, regiment and place of commemoration across all official Commonwealth cemeteries and memorials.

Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing (CWGC)

According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres commemorates 54,588 soldiers who died in the Ypres Salient and have no known grave. Individual names are officially recorded and searchable within the CWGC database.

Tyne Cot Cemetery (CWGC)

According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Tyne Cot Cemetery is the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the world, containing named burials and memorial panels for soldiers who died during the Third Battle of Ypres.

Poelcapelle British Cemetery (CWGC)

According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Poelcapelle British Cemetery contains named Commonwealth burials from the First World War, including Irish soldiers. Individual grave records are searchable via the CWGC database.

Le Touret Memorial (CWGC)

According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the Le Touret Memorial commemorates 13,485 soldiers who died in this sector of the Western Front before 25 September 1915 and who have no known grave. Individual names are recorded and searchable via the CWGC database.

Thiepval Memorial to the Missing (CWGC)

According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the Thiepval Memorial commemorates 72,311 soldiers of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and who have no known grave. Individual names are searchable via the CWGC database.

Wytschaete Military Cemetery (CWGC)

According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Wytschaete Military Cemetery contains named Commonwealth burials from the First World War. Individual grave records are searchable through the CWGC database.

Loos Memorial to the Missing (CWGC)

According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the Loos Memorial commemorates 20,633 officers and men who died in the Loos sector from September 1915 to the end of the war and who have no known grave. Individual names are searchable via the CWGC database.

Guillemont Road Cemetery (CWGC)

According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Guillemont Road Cemetery contains Commonwealth burials and commemorations from the First World War, largely dating from the Battle of the Somme in 1916. The cemetery includes burials of soldiers from several divisions, including the 16th (Irish) Division. Individual grave records and commemorations are officially recorded and searchable through the CWGC database.

Ireland’s Great War Dead

Ireland’s Great War Dead is a publicly supported Irish research project developed in partnership with local government library services. The archive brings together county level and family information relating to Irish servicemen who died during the First World War.

The project is based on more than twenty years of research and draws on contemporary newspapers, official memorial records and historical publications. It is widely used by historians and genealogists to trace Irish connections, family background and local remembrance linked to the war.

Why this resource is helpful

A common question on First World War battlefield tours is why some Irish servicemen do not appear on major memorials such as the Menin Gate or Thiepval. Ireland’s Great War Dead helps explain this through its outline of the CWGC acceptance process, showing how commemoration decisions are made and why some cases remain under review or were not accepted due to evidence requirements. This provides valuable historical clarity and context for families researching Irish relatives before or after their visit.

In order for a candidate to be accepted for CWGC commemoration and War Grave status, they have to meet certain criteria. They must have died whilst in service with a Commonwealth military or died post-discharge of a cause proven to be due to, aggravated by or commencing during service within the qualifying dates (4th August 1914 to 31st August 1921 inclusive). If one of these criteria is met, they are accepted by the adjudicating authorities.

While this archive provides important historical and genealogical context, it is not a burial register or memorial authority. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission remains the sole official authority for burial locations and memorial commemoration.

Website
https://irelandsgreatwardead.ie/